Shows Still Wary of Visa Problems
By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 6/21/2004
The U.S. government says most travel visas are approved on the spot, but tradeshow producers still worry that processing delays and hassles are keeping some international attendees and exhibitors away from American events.
In a survey it conducted recently, the Consumer Electronics Assn., producer of Intl. CES, found that nearly one-fifth of past attendees who did not go to the 2004 show in Las Vegas cited difficulty in obtaining a visa as the main reason for their absence.
This year's show, held Jan. 8–11, drew 2,400 exhibitors and 130,000 attendees, 14 percent of them from outside the United States. In 2003, the association had expected 16,606, or 21 percent, of attendees, to hail from outside the United States. However, 2,000 people didn't show up because they couldn't secure a visa in time, organizers said.
In the survey, 59 percent of 2004's would-be attendees said they encountered difficulty with the visa application process. Of those, 17 percent said it took too long and 17 percent said the U.S. embassy or consulate was difficult to work with. Another 16 percent didn't schedule their visa interviews in time, and 10 percent were denied visas.
Gary Shapiro, CEA president and CEO, said in a statement that the visa problems represent a lost opportunity, considering that tradeshow attendees from emerging economies provide U.S. business owners with one of the biggest growth opportunities.
Intl. CES, the largest U.S. show of 2003 according to TSW research, isn't the only tradeshow concerned with visa processing. In 2002, the triennial CONEXPO-CON/AGG experienced a sharp decline in international attendance. That year, 380, or 18 percent of its exhibitors, were international, compared with 545, or nearly 29 percent, at the 1999 show.
The 2002 show, the year's largest by TSW reckoning, also saw the proportion of international CONEXPO-CON/AGG attendees decline to 14.3 percent, from 15.7 percent in 1999. Regionally, the proportion of Asian, South American and Middle Eastern attendees was down by about one–third. In 1999, more than 2,000 attendees came from Asia and more than 1,000 from South America.
Petra Kaiser, manager of international promotion for CONEXPO-CON/AGG, said her organization is providing online visa information not only for attendees and exhibitors, but also members of the press, many of whom also require visas. All registration information that is sent out is accompanied by details on the visa situation. The brochures prominently feature a visa warning. The exhibitor manual also includes visa advice. "We're being much more proactive in letting people know beforehand," Kaiser said.
CONEXPO-CON/AGG also provides personal invitation letters. Thanks to a tip picked up at the last Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management meeting, Kaiser said those letters are now processed online, with the personal information dumped into an Excel spreadsheet and automatically attached to a letter. Show officials still check that the requests are legitimate. "We approve them individually to make sure we don't have someone with a gardening shop trying to come to an equipment show," she said.
Contrary to the CEA survey results, Stuart Patt, a spokesman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, said that only 2 percent of visa applications receive extra scrutiny; the rest are adjudicated immediately. And 80 percent of those 2 percent are completed within 30 days, according to Patt. "The overwhelming majority worldwide are going to be handled very quickly," he said.
Patt confirmed that the Chinese government did temporarily close a U.S. call center that allowed visa applicants to phone in appointments for their required in-person interviews. However, the U.S. government recently reached an agreement for its reopening. Such call centers are used in 40 countries.
Since Sept. 11, the U.S. State Department has been tightening security on visitors to the United States as a means of thwarting would-be terrorists. But Patt said protecting U.S. technology is also a concern, especially with visitors from China and Russia. "Scientists, people in technology — those individuals are going to be put through additional security review because of concerns about shared technology," he said.
Patt said applying early remains the best way to ensure that a visa is procured in time for a tradeshow. "Those shows are scheduled at least a year or two in advance," he said.
