A tour operator is petitioning Secretary of State John Kerry to open 100 videoconferencing visa-application centers in China, to facilitate travel to the U.S. The Change.org petition was written by Stephen Russell, CEO of China USA Travel, an inbound tour operator based in St. Paul, Minn. Visa applicants must be interviewed by a U.S. consular officer. Russell said there are only five cities in China with U.S. consulates that conduct the interviews. Chinese citizens may have to travel hundreds miles for a three-minute visa interview, Russell said. As a result, many Chinese tourists travel elsewhere, said Russell. Russell is calling for the travel industry to fund the videoconferencing centers, and for State Department-approved vendors to manage them. Such centers could process 40,000 applicants per center, Russell said. Consulates could use limited non-career appointments as consular officers, whose pay would be funded by the $160 visa application fee, he said.
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