US Embassy Makes Indonesians Go Online for Visa Applications

Jakarta Globe, Putri Prameshwari, April 14, 2010

The United States Embassy in Jakarta will adopt a greener approach to visa applications by going paperless next month, an official said Wednesday.

Jeffrey Tunis, consul general of the embassy in Jakarta, said that starting May 1, all visa applications must be submitted online instead of printed out and brought to the embassy.

“We have entered the Internet age,” he said, adding that the application process will be easier if done online.

The new form, DS 160, will be available to download on the embassy’s Web site, he said. After filing online, applicants must wait for approval from the consular office for an interview.

Robert Hawkins, the embassy’s vice consul, warned people to be aware of illegal agents offering quick visas. He said they often tricked applicants into using forged documents, which in the end were not approved.

“Around 5 percent of applicants are still caught using false documents,” he said, adding that the embassy approves an average of 60,000 applications per year.

Of that number, 40,000 are for business and tourism purposes, 8,000 are for seamen, and 2,000 for students.

He also said that approximately 80 percent of those applying for business and tourism visas here are granted entrance to the United States.

Tunis said that the number had been decreasing since Sept. 11, 2001, with a further downturn during the global financial crisis beginning in 2008.

“We used to get around 80,000 before that,” he said, “nowadays, people don’t travel as much.”

He said that the process of getting a visa is more complicated since the attack on the World Trade Center in New York. However, he encouraged more Indonesians to apply.

“If an applicant has all the required documents, the application should not take longer than two days,” he said.

Tunis also said that people with certain Muslim names should not worry about being denied a visa, as many fear.

“All names will be scanned with our database,” he said.

However, he said, people with certain names will go through additional scanning.

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