The United States is expanding its consular services in China and Brazil to meet the skyrocketing demand for American visas in these two emerging economies, top officials have said.

“We’ve seen an unprecedented rise in visa demand in emerging economies such as China and Brazil. Last year, our highly trained core of consular officers issued more than 7.5 million visas around the world. That represents a 17 per cent increase over fiscal year 2010,” Mr Ed Ramotowski, Managing Director for Visa Services, told reporters here.

“While we have already staffed up high-demand locations, and we plan to send 100 more officers to China and Brazil in the coming year, we can’t just send anyone to do this important work. We have to make sure our officers are thoroughly vetted and thoroughly trained,” he said.

Noting that skyrocketing visa demand in China and Brazil is a good-news story, Mr Ramotowski said the US issued 35 per cent more visas in China this year and 44 per cent more in Brazil. That has a tremendous impact on the US economy and job growth, he added.

The goal is to expand US capacity to adjudicate more than 2.2 million visas in China and 1.8 million visas in Brazil by 2013, he said.

Mr Chuck Bennett, Minister Counsellor for Consular Affairs at the US Embassy in China, said that in China, they adjudicated more than 1 million US visas for Chinese applicants during fiscal year 2011.

“In addition to the US embassy in Beijing, our consulates in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Chengdu all contributed to this accomplishment, which represents a 34 per cent increase over last year,” the official said, adding that over the next year, they will add 50 more positions in China.

Mr Donald Jacobson, Minister Counsellor for Consular Affairs at the US Embassy in Brazil, said that in Brazil, they adjudicated more than 820,000 visas in the fiscal year that just ended, an increase of more than 42 per cent over the previous year.

“Our goal in Brazil is to have the capacity to adjudicate more than 1.8 million visas by 2013. And so we’re looking at ways to expand and remodel our consular facilities to interview more visa applicants,” he said.

“Since 2005 consular officer staffing in Brazil has doubled. It’s going to double again this year. Since 2008, to meet short-term staffing needs, more than 50 officers have worked in Brazil on temporary assignments, providing an additional 2,000 days of service. In October alone we adjudicated more than 90,000 visas in Brazil, 67 per cent more than October of last year,” he said.

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