A Day in the Life of A Consular Officer By Elizabeth Wolfe Staff Writer Peering from behind the glass at a visa applicant, the U.S. consular officer has five minutes to decide whether the man in front of him is who he says he claims to be — a flight engineer who has worked in many other countries and is now being invited to work in the United States. When the applicant fails to produce both proof of his past stints abroad and consistent answers about his past trips, the interviewer sends him away empty-handed. "I still have questions that you can’t answer," the officer says in Russian. Often the targets of criticism for unfairness and surly service, the employees in the U.S. Embassy’s nonimmigrant visa section are doing their best at a difficult job, says their boss, Consul General Laura Clerici. Like their counterparts all over the world, they are charged with judging whether an applicant is likely to return home or to remain in the United States. "The U.S. Consulate doesn’t want to scare visa applicants, and they don’t want to refuse applicants the right to travel abroad," said Clerici, who opened up her workplace to a group of journalists for a day June 15. "Most visa applicants do not understand that the issue that is paramount to us is whether the person is going to do what they say they are going to do and come back to Russia at the end of [their stay]." Approximately one-third of Russians issued visas last spring and summer did not return, embassy officials report. Section 214(b) of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act — the basis for most of the decisions the consulate makes regarding applicants for nonimmigrant visas — states that every visa applicant "shall be presumed to be an immigrant." Thus, it’s up to the applicant to prove he or she intends to come back. Clerici uses the word "coherence" to describe what consular officers look for: "Does the person look like who he says he is? Does the person act like, does he speak the language like a person who he says he is? Do the documents more or less bear it out?" During the brief window exchange, a letter from a university can matter as much as the shoes on the applicant’s feet. "Appearances do matter if the person claims to be the director of a large company and he ... isn’t dressed in a suit. He’s dressed maybe in sweat pants, wearing sneakers, he looks like the kind of guy who might run a kiosk on the street," Clerici said. And they don’t have much time to decide. In Moscow, interviewing officers are given five minutes to make a decision and are required to process 100 to 125 nonimmigrant visas a day. In some countries, they are even more pressed for time. In Mexico City, for example, they are given only 90 seconds per interview, consular officials said. Putting in time at the consular section is mandatory for all up-and-coming diplomats. Some of the interviewing officers have only had six months of Russian lessons before starting the job. Clerici said she was upset by media reports that the majority of visa applicants were turned down. In fact, only 31 percent of the 104,000 applications for nonimmigrant visas received last year were rejected, she said. "One of the things that happens is people are afraid to answer questions," Clerici said. "That’s because there is this persistent fear that they’re going to be denied a visa. Because there’s this rumor out there that we deny visas to everybody." Allegations of unfounded refusals are not the only complaints hurled at the consulate. In the high season, visa seekers wait for hours outside to submit applications. Some enterprising souls hustle people out of their spots and sell prime places in line. As a solution, Clerici pointed to the open space behind the building that could serve as an indoor, toilet-equipped waiting area. She estimated potential costs at under $2 million, but said the early fall target date for construction depended on whether the U.S. State Department allocates funds.