By Francis Joseph, Newsday

IT IS getting more and more difficult to travel to the United States. Nationals of Trinidad and Tobago wishing to enter the United States will from November 1 have to pay US $100 or TT $630 for a non-immigrant visa.

This is the second increase this year added to the fact that the Immigration and Naturalisation Services (INS) has now restricted worldwide visitors from staying more than a month on a non-immigration visa. Further, the US Government is deporting Caribbean-born people who have run afoul of the law there and who have served prison sentences.

Despite these additional hardships, TT nationals are still travelling to the United States and overstaying their time. Newsday learned that the additional measures put in place by the Department of State have to do with the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC.

US officials are clamping down on suspected terrorists entering their country. The additional measures are meant to curb the flow of suspicious persons. Already, a number of foreigners including a Trinidadian Shuyeb Mossa Jokhan have been jailed in the United States for plotting terror on the US post September 11. Jokhan was jailed for four years and 10 months in Fort Lauderdale on October 4 for plotting to bomb federal installations in Florida.

Despite the increases in visa applications, there are still lines outside the US Embassy on Marli Street, Newtown. Previously, TT nationals were asked to pay US $65 or TT $400 for a non-immigrant visa. This is the second time in the last six months that the Department of State has announced a worldwide increase in its visas application processing fee for non-immigrant visas.

At the beginning of this year, TT nationals were paying less than $300 before the first increase was announced. According to a release from the United States Embassy in Port-of-Spain, the latest adjustment will bring the US $100 fee into line with the actual costs of administering non-immigrant visa services.

The State Department in the United States has congressional authorisation to fund the Department’s Border Security programme with a user fee.

Reproduced from:
http://newsday.co.tt./