Fast Visa Plan for Rich Only, INS Critics Say
Immigration groups complained Thursday that the government is giving the rich and famous special treatment under a new program that will allow foreign celebrities, athletes and executives to get their working visas in 15 days for a $1,000 payment.
The visa application process takes three months for most foreigners.
“This basically says, ‘If you have money, we’ll let you into our country as soon as we can. If you don’t have money, you can wait,’ ” said Arthur Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service will launch the Premium Processing program today.
INS officials said the program, expected to pull in $80 million next year, will allow the agency to speed up processing for all applicants.
“It will allow the agency to modernize and hire more adjudicators for processing,” said INS spokeswoman Eyleen Schmidt.
--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE --- The Associated Press issued a corrective on Oct. 22, 2002 identifying some stories by a former reporter that contain quotations from experts whose existence cannot be verified. The reporter, Christopher Newton, was dismissed from the AP Sept. 16, 2002. This is one of the stories in question. It quotes “Arthur Gonzalez,” whose existence cannot be verified. --- END NOTE ---
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