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May 2010 - News
May 2010

Mandatory screening for Syrian travellers to the US dropped

The US has scrapped mandatory nationality-based screening measures for citizens of 14 countries, including Syria.

Announcing the move on April 2, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs PJ Crowley said the “particular emphasis given to 14 countries” was neither sustainable nor efficient.

“We’ve been engaged in intensive dialogue with those countries,” he said.

Syria was singled out by the US as a “security risk” following the unsuccessful attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane on Christmas Day. Following the foiled attack, citizens of and persons travelling from Syria, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Algeria, Afghanistan, Libya, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen were required to undergo compulsory checks that included full-body screenings, pat-downs and hand luggage searches.

The move resulted in the US Embassy in Syria’s Chargé d’Affaires Charles Hunter being summoned to the foreign ministry, which described the new security procedures as “unfriendly” and threatened to introduce reciprocal measures.

Meanwhile, travel to the US should be easier for Syrians after a number of measures were announced by the State Department and the US Embassy in Syria.

On April 8, the US Embassy in Syria announced that it had signed an agreement with Banque Bemo Saudi Fransi (BBSF) to process the payments of visa fees through designated BBSF branches in Syrian pounds. Applicants were previously required to pay their visa fees at the embassy in US dollars.

The measure is one of a number of moves taken in the past few months to ease the visa application process. These include using an online system to schedule visa application appointments, allowing visa applicants to send and receive their passports to and from the embassy by DHL courier and providing non-immigration visa application forms via the web.

The measures have reduced the number of required visits to the embassy from four to one, along with the time taken to issue a visa from three months to less than one.