Speech #920264075

A foreign citizen. outside of the United States but seeking to enter. has no such protection and must depend entirely upon the good judgment. or the whim. of the American official with whom he must deal. Arbitrary action does not harm only the foreign national. in many cases. American friends and relatives may also be frustrated. and without a remedy. when a consular official acts arbitrarily with respect to a foreigners visa application. My bill. introduced today. does not alter the statutory presumption of immigrant status on an otherwise qualified foreign applicant for a visa. It deals only with the manner of overcoming that presumption when an American citizen is aggrieved by the decision of a consular officer that the foreign applicant is to be denied a visa because he is presumed to be an immigrant. Under the bill. upon the written request of a citizen of the United States. the consular official is required to submit a written statement describing the evidence upon which his determination was made. the reasons for his determination. and a description of the evidence needed to overcome the presumption that the alien is an immigrant. Thereafter. under the bill. the alien applicant may submit additional evidence and the consular official must review his prior determination of immigrant status on the basis of the new evidence and submit to the U.S. citizen making the request a written statement containing the basis for his final decision. Frankly. Mr. Speaker. this modest bill is prompted by my inability to obtain satisfactory answers from the Department of State concerning the denial of a visa application of great interest to a constituent of. mine when there was abundant and uncontroverted evidence that the alien seeking a visa intended only to visit friends for a temporary period. My repeated requests to the consular office resulted only in the cryptic reply that the applicant failed to overcome the presumption of immigrant status. If such cavalier treatment Is accorded to a Member of Congress there can be little doubt that other American citizens have had similar experiences at the hands of consular officials. It is believed that my bill will help to introduce a degree of reasonableness into a statutory procedure which breeds arbitrary action.