U.S.-Vietnam Relations

Ambassador Maura Harty with Vietnam Television

November 30, 2007

Question: Welcome Ambassador Maura Harty. What do you think about the status of U.S. visa granting to Vietnamese people in the next few years? Especially when the relationship between Vietnam and the U.S. is growing?

Ambassador Maura Harty: Thank you. I think you’re absolutely right, that the relationship is ever-improving and ever-broadening and deepening. One of the real indications of that for both of our countries is the fact that the number of visas that we are granting to Vietnamese citizens was up over 30 percent last year for people going for business and tourism, and up over 50 percent for Vietnamese students coming to the United States.

So what I think is that Vietnamese citizens are traveling a lot and American consular officers here in Vietnam are working very hard to help them to do that, and both of those things are good news.

Question: You said the number of visas granted for students last years increased by 50 percent. Is that linked with any changes in U.S. visa policy? Is it because of the loosening on the decision of visa granting to Vietnamese student?

Ambassador Maura Harty: I’m not sure what you’re referring to with respect to loosening up on decisions, but I will say that our goal around the world, and certainly here in Vietnam, is to facilitate as much legitimate travel as we possibly can. There’s no ceiling on the number of tourist visas or student visas that we can grant, so the more people who qualify the happier we are. We’re not trying to deny people visas, we’re trying to facilitate and make as easy as possible travel to the United States for every legitimate traveler, so we welcome people from Vietnam.

Question: But there is a fact that the numbers of visas granted for Vietnamese students increased.

Ambassador Maura Harty: Over 54 percent.

Question: But for many Vietnamese and tourists from Vietnam there is still some difficulty. What do you think about this?

Ambassador Maura Harty: I’m sorry to say but I don’t agree with you about that. An increase of over 30 percent means that we are in fact witnessing a very positive trajectory in both categories. This is a very positive trend and there are some other ways we can help see that trend continue to increase. If you will allow me, I will give you some suggestions for people who are watching this show. We feel very sincerely that the more people understand about the process and the better they prepare for an interview, the greater the likelihood that they will in fact have success when they come for their visa interview.

How can they prepare? They should look at our web site. They should pay attention to what the embassy says about what is required during a visa interview so that they can come prepared to that interview just in the same way that a student might prepare for an exam and so they won’t be surprised when they get here about either what kind of documents they need to show or what kind of questions might be asked of them.

They should also not go to any middlemen anywhere. This is an issue between the person who would like to visit my country and the consular officer who will interview them. There is no middle man required. So people who may stand outside and try to sell people false documents, people who try to pretend they have influence over the decisions that officers make, those are not people to be dealt with. This is about an interaction between the embassy or our consulate and the individual traveler. We welcome them, and we want very much to have people come into the embassy prepared for that interview so that we can maximize the number of visas we can issue to legitimate travelers.

Question: For business people who want to travel to the U.S., who want to develop business relation, do you have any advice for them? Because we can see that there are some people who have problems with visa granting.

Ambassador Maura Harty: I think several of the questions that you ask may have been reflective of reality several years ago. That is in the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks on my country it is true all over the world that we instituted new policies, but that is back in 2001 and early 2002. We did those things very quickly to make sure that our country would be safer.

In 2001, on that awful day when the attacks took place in Washington, D.C., in New York, and in the skies over Pennsylvania, over 3,000 people died -- mostly Americans, but citizens from over 90 other countries including citizens from Vietnam.

So we made our processes at that time more secure and we’ve made them more efficient since then, but it is always with the idea that we want America to be safer not only for American citizens but for our foreign visitors, be they students or business travelers, be they coming for tourism or medical needs or investment purposes, whatever it might be.

So perhaps some of the things that your viewers think about, that it’s so hard to get a visa, are reflective of a reality from several years ago. If somebody has had an experience four or five years ago where they were denied a visa, I would recommend very strongly that they look at our web site today and with that information in hand look at themselves and their personal situations and consider whether or not their situation has changed enough for them to consider coming back in for a visa interview. Try us, you’ll like us. And don’t pay attention to a story that is six or seven years old at this point. Pay attention to and judge us by how we do today when you come in for an appointment and when you have your visa interview.

Question: Let’s go to the good news. It’s a fact that the number of students from Vietnam who travel to the U.S. has increased because visa granting is more convenient and they get more, the number of visas issued. So what is the reason for that? And for a student who wants to travel to the U.S. to study, what can they do? What is advised for me to do to get a visa?

Ambassador Maura Harty: First, you’re absolutely right. We saw in fiscal year 2007 a 54 percent increase in the number of Vietnamese students receiving visas to go to the United States. I think that’s terrific. I think it’s reflective of several things. One is, more are applying. Probably more are applying because we’re doing a lot of outreach and because as I learned only yesterday at VNU, there is a tremendous emphasis and desire by Vietnamese students to come to the United States to study and we are delighted by that.

It’s probably also true that students realize there are over 4,000 different colleges and universities in the United States virtually all of which welcome foreign students to our country. There’s no reason for you to know this, but in fact in America right now there are more foreign students studying than ever before in our history. So we are very much welcoming foreign students and doing all that we can to attract them.

For a student who applies for a visa to study in the United States they have to do several things. Of course they have to be able to prove that they have in fact been accepted by an American college or university. That means they have to have a form called an I-20 that the school issues to them when they are accepted. They have to bring that with them to the interview.

They also have to prove how they’re going to pay for the first year of their study in the United States. They also have to demonstrate to us and be able to explain why it is studying in America is going to help them when they come home again. How do they plan to use the education that they received in the United States? All of those things are very very likely questions during an interview here at the embassy or at our consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. So those are some of the very basic requirements.

I encourage students to look at that web site in even greater detail so that they can familiarize themselves with what else will happen at an interview, but those are the basic things they need to know.

Question: The Ambassador of the United States in Vietnam said that the U.S. would try to double the number of visas granted for the students. How can you do that?

Ambassador Maura Harty: Well, I think it’s a two-way street. Ambassador Michalak says by 2010, by the year 2010 he would like to see us double the number of students who come to the United States from Vietnam to study. I’m delighted by that. That will be a challenge for us to be able to process that many visas, but it’s a challenge we will be delighted to face. We need to see legitimate Vietnamese students apply in those kind of numbers so that we can actually interview that many students and make those decisions. I think it’s a little bit up to the Vietnamese students who apply for visas and then, of course, up to us to make that visa interview process as transparent, as efficient as possible so that we can issue as many legitimate visas to legitimate travelers as possible.

But I think it’s a great goal. I applaud Ambassador Michalak for having that goal. You know what I hope? I hope we do even more than that.

Question: As I know that the fee for a visa now is too high, especially compared to Vietnamese people’s income, one hundred U.S. dollars for one visa, so is there any chance you will reduce the fee?

Ambassador Maura Harty: I’ll be very candid, no. It’s not a fee for a visa, it’s actually the fee for the appointment process. The reason for that is the bureau that I administer, the Consular Affairs Bureau, has offices all around the world. I have about 10,000 people who work in American embassies and consulates all around the world. All of our operating expenses are derived from the fees that we charge people for various services, whether it be a passport for an American citizen, a visa for a foreign citizen, the interview itself. That $100 goes to providing the offices, the officers, the locally engaged staff. That’s in fact what it costs us to provide that service.

So in order to be able to do things like provide sufficient officers to interview all of the students who want to come to the United States, I actually need to charge that to be able to build the best kind of service possible and to accommodate as many Vietnamese students and business and tourist travelers as we might need to see. So I don’t see that fee going down, no. I’m sorry to say that’s true. And I hope that does not deter people. I hope very sincerely that people understand that, just as I explained it, and that people still find a way to want to come to the United States as students, as tourists, as business travelers in any category they want.

Question: Back to our country, what do you think about the number of people who cannot get visas because of problems, obstacles? What is the percentage compared with that of other countries?

Ambassador Maura Harty: I certainly regret it when somebody fails to qualify for a visa, which is why I feel so strongly that people should look at our web site first so that they know what the qualifications are before they come in for a visa interview. But I hesitate to make comparisons with other countries because I think that travel to the United States for tourism, for business, for an academic experience as a student, I think there is no comparison to coming to America. The best academic experiences, the best bang for your tourist buck, the best business investment possibilities, the most transparent procedures for all of these things are to be found here and in my country. So I’m going to have to say, and I hope you forgive my pride in saying it, there is no comparison. We welcome people to the United States and it is a unique and a singular experience they will have when they come.

Question: As I know that one of the purposes of your trip to Vietnam is to discuss the issue of adoption. Could you tell us something about the situation between U.S. and Vietnam?

Ambassador Maura Harty: Absolutely. For several years American citizens were not able to adopt children from Vietnam, but back in the year 2005 we reached an agreement and since then hundreds of Vietnamese children have been adopted by American citizen parents, and that really is another way that we cement the bonds, the strong and significant and growing bonds between our two countries.

The agreement that we reached in 2005 is up for renewal, so I am here to begin talks about that, because quite frankly we need to be sure that the process of adopting children in this country is transparent, and also provides the best possible protection for the children, for their biological parents, and for the American citizens who might adopt them. We must be absolutely positive that any child who is going to be adopted or who is adopted by an American citizen is in fact eligible to be adopted, is in fact an orphan. We must be very very certain that that program is as free from any kind of corruption or misunderstanding about a child’s ability to be adopted.

When we come to this country to talk about adoptions and when we go to any other country in the world to talk about adoptions, it is always informed by a special convention, the Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoptions. Part of what that convention says is that domestic adoptions are always the first option. If a child can be adopted in their own country, then that is the preferred option. If in fact adoption within their own country is not available for whatever reason, then of course we would like to work with that country to build the most transparent process possible to see adoptions occur.

I want to be very clear about this. What is most important for us is that here in Vietnam as well as in other countries around the world, what is most important for us is that if a child needs a family and a home, we would like to be able to provide that. We’re not here because parents want children, we are here because children need families. That’s a very important difference. This is about taking care of children. Thank you for asking that question.

Question: And of course the U.S. and Vietnamese government are trying to protect children wanting to be adopted in a real family. They should have good adopted family. How can the U.S. and Vietnam cooperate in fighting so-called child buying or selling under the form of adoption?

Ambassador Maura Harty: It’s in fact a very legitimate concern. It’s a great question and it is a legitimate concern of ours as well as a number of ministries of the government of Vietnam. Today alone I have visited with several. The Foreign Ministry, the DIA that works under the Ministry of Justice. I will actually meet at the Ministry of Justice later today. I met with representatives of the National Assembly to talk about what we hope will occur as soon as possible. That is new legislation about adoptions, both domestic and international, so that we all understand what the law is, so that there I fact are penalties for those who break the law. So that we together can inform people who work in adoption services here, as well as people who work as what we call adoption service providers who come here to make sure that everybody knows that the rules of this process are, and that if they do not abide by those rules and laws they will no longer be able to participate in these programs.

We are very concerned. There should never, ever, ever be a case where an American citizen adopts a child who is not eligible to be adopted. There is no tolerance in my country for the buying or selling of children. Children are not commodities. Children are human beings.

We believe very strongly that you can tell a lot about a society by how it treats its most vulnerable members, and in every society that is of course our children. We want to work very hard with representatives of the government of Vietnam to make sure that child selling never occurs. We have some concerns and that’s why we’re here, to talk about those concerns, to together build the best possible program.

Question: Thank you very much.

Ambassador Maura Harty: Thank you so much.

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