Kathmandu:

The charm of United States of America never dies among Nepalis as more and more people are applying for US Visa; be it for education or vacation or the famous Diversity Visa lottery. According to the Consular Section at US Embassy a total of 34,000 applications were processed last year.

In order to disseminate authentic and proper information regarding various types of visas to US the Consular Section of the US Embassy in Nepal organised a special programme at the Embassy on January 23. The programme was a part of their outreach campaign to help Nepalis find the correct channel to gain information about visa process.

While talking at the press meet American ambassador to Nepal, Nancy J Powell said, “Our Consular Section decided to conduct an outreach campaign to help educate Nepalis public about visas to US, what qualifications are required and how to apply, but most importantly, to warn Nepali applicants about increasing level of fraud and scams we are seeing in applications.” While talking about the frauds she also pointed out the increase in number of consultancies that dupe people of their money with false promises of guaranteed visa with fake documents. “In reality, only a consular officer during an interview can determine if an applicant qualifies for a visa to US,” she added.

Mea Arnold, Chief, Consular Section, also drew attention to the increase of fraud in the applications by using fake documents and incidents of people being cheated by consultancies. The slogan for the campaign is “Visa ko sahi suchana, American Embassy ma.” Arnold explained, “The slogan means that we have the best, most correct information about how to apply for a US visa.” She also urged people to find out information on their own by using various authentic resources like the embassy websites (kathmandu.usembassy.gov or nepal.usembassy.gov), United States Education Foundation (USEF) office, email (consktm@state.gov) and also web chats where one can ask questions on related topics.

Fake or forged documents and also genuine documents obtained fraudulently are the prevalent fraud cases seen in visa applications. These are seen almost in required documents like bank statements, educational certificates and passport among others. To generate awareness a special flyer titled ‘Don’t be a victim’ with real stories of people who have been cheated and tricked while applying for US visas was also issued at the function.

A special tour of the

Consular Section with a briefing of the working process along with a mock visa interview was also conducted for the press at the programme. — HNS