New scrutiny delays visas, rankles business

Kathy Wilson waited at the bus station like she does every May 1 – the start of her busy season at the bed-and-breakfast she and her husband run in Saugatuck, Mich.

She was there to pick up 10 Jamaicans who would spend the summer helping her cook and clean. When the bus arrived and her help did not, she knew something was wrong.

"I thought their temporary work visas had already been processed, but when I got home and checked, the process hadn't even begun," says Ms. Wilson.

The visa crackdown since Sept. 11 – which includes slower processing and changes in rules – is having a profound effect on many segments of society, from education to healthcare to agriculture. While businesses are crying foul, saying the economy's been hurt enough by the events of 9/11, the government says extra care – if not time – is critical at a time like this.

It's all part of the nation's wrangling over immigration policy – a debate that is sure to resurface in even more complex and varied ways.

Policies aimed at making the nation more secure, have an array of negative side effects. For example:

• A visa-waiver program that brings in foreign doctors to work in severely understaffed rural hospitals has been halted.

• A slowdown in the processing of temporary work visas – for both skilled and unskilled workers – is causing all types of businesses, from resorts to high-tech industries, to stumble.

• Universities can no longer allow foreign students to begin classes before their student visas are processed.

"I think businesses and citizens and foreign travelers are willing to endure some level of inconvenience," says Ben Johnson, associate director of advocacy at the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington. "But there's a difference between inconvenience and institutional paranoia. We need to make sure we don't become afraid of immigration."

He says the policies that try to distinguish between bad actors and good actors is the correct way of making the country more secure. But policies that "impose blanket restrictions in the hopes that a bad actor will be inconvenienced is the wrong way to go about it."

As an example of that, Mr. Johnson points to the most recent proposal in Washington, which would change the length of time certain tourists could spend in the US. It says that if an airport INS inspector can't make a determination as to why someone should stay longer than 30 days – whether because of language barriers or document problems – than they will automatically be limited to 30 days or less.

Tourists from the 28 visa-waiver countries (mainly Western Europe and Japan) will not be affected, and will be allowed to stay up to six months. Those tourists from non-waiver countries number almost 1 million and contribute $2 billion to the US economy.

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