Bin laden’s death: US visas not affected: officer

KARACHI:

The US consulate in Karachi, while heavily guarded, will continue its visa work.

“Our regular visa interview schedule is running without any interruption,” consulate information officer Andrea DeArment told The Express Tribune on Monday. “In fact our Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael B Kirby visited the consulate just last week to check on how the visa consular services were coming along.”

According to DeArment, the slight lag in interview dates is due to the “great backlog” of applications that followed their launch of services from the city. “Many people knew we were about to start processing from Karachi and they waited to submit their applications here,” she explained. “But it is encouraging to see how many people want to travel to the United States.”

To cope with the large number of applications, DeArment said they plan to increase their staff strength by July. “Since we are dealing with all non-immigrant visas for all of Sindh and Balochistan, we need the additional workforce in order to keep functioning efficiently,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2011.