VZCZCXRO7970
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHPG #1323/01 3551439
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211439Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY PRAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9924
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 001323 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/NCE AND CA/VO 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS CMGT PREL EZ
 
SUBJECT: PRAGUE CONSULAR ROUNDUP, AUGUST-DECEMBER 2007 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  Visa waiver continues to be a significant bilateral issue.  The 
Czechs have begun to engage in HSPD-6 negotiations, while the NIV 
refusal rates and overstays continue to decline.  Visa fraud is also 
low, making a fake bank document a significant catch. Post 
successfully implemented 10-fingerprint capture for visa applicants 
and increased its outreach to college students and Internet users. 
Post identified several cases of child support arrears and is 
increasing outreach efforts to absentee voters.  End Summary. 
 
CZECHS AND VISA WAIVER 
---------------------- 
 
¶2.  Outgoing DHS DAS for Policy Nathan Sales and DHS International 
Enforcement Director Dan Sullivan visited Prague in September to 
preview with senior Czech officials the changes made by the visa 
waiver reform legislation.  This issue continues to be of paramount 
importance for the Czechs.  Despite Embassy efforts to address visa 
waiver as a discrete issue, the Czechs continually draw links 
between it and their support for our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan 
(where they will be setting up a Provincial Reconstruction Team), 
missile defense, and counterterrorism cooperation generally.  The 
Czechs can also be expected to point to their December 21 joining of 
the Schengen zone (septel).  They have a strong desire to be a visa 
waiver country by the time they take up the presidency of the 
European Union in January 2009, which we believe will be a strong 
motivation for them to move quickly on any required agreements. 
 
CZECHS AND HSPD-6 
----------------- 
 
¶3. Post hosted representatives of the Terrorist Screening Center and 
the Policy and Legal offices of the State Department on November 1 
and 2 to discuss the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 6 
(HSPD-6) terrorist watchlist initiative with representatives of the 
Czech Interior Ministry.  An agreement on HSPD-6 cooperation would 
help the Czechs satisfy a required security enhancement of the visa 
waiver reform legislation.  First Deputy Interior Minister Salivar 
declared that even without the carrot of visa waiver, cooperation 
with the Terrorist Screening Center is a worthy goal in and of 
itself.  The Czechs are eager to move forward with this, but 
presently are awaiting the outcome of an initiative to reform their 
national security agencies.  Post hopes to have more information 
about the progress of this initiative after the New Year. 
 
CONSULAR SECTION GETS SECURITY TOUR OF AIRPORT 
-------- ------- ---- -------- ---- -- ------- 
 
¶4. Czech Airlines hosted the consular officers and FSNs for a review 
of its document and security screening procedures from check-in 
through boarding.  Consular staff members watched CSA screeners 
review passports and visas, and went on a tour of the baggage 
screening area, the secondary screening area at the gate for 
U.S.-bound passengers, as well as the tarmac.  The screening 
procedures were impressive and thorough throughout. 
 
 
REFUSAL RATES AND OVERSTAYS 
------- ----- --- --------- 
 
¶5. The official B-visa refusal rate for Czechs in FY-2007 is 6.7%, 
down from 9.2% in FY-2006 and well within the rate required by VWP 
reform.  Post also completed a validation study of 1,000 B-1/B-2 
visa applicants, which indicates that the confirmed visa overstay 
rate is also quite low.  A detailed review of the validation study 
will be provided in septel. 
 
FPU IDENTIFIES FRAUDULENT BANK DOCUMENTS 
--- ---------- ---------- ---- --------- 
 
¶6. FPU identified a pattern of suspicious bank documents in October. 
 While many applicants were simply refused visas, two applicants who 
appeared bona fide were found ineligible for misrepresentation, and 
eventually admitted that they purchased the documents from a vendor 
who advertised on the Internet.  FPU obtained fraud detection points 
from several major Czech banks to help identify any future 
fraudulent documents. 
 
POST DEVELOPS VIDEO TO ASSIST WITH 10-PRINT ROLLOUT 
---- -------- ----- -- ------ ---- -------- ------- 
 
¶7.  Post successfully implemented ten-fingerprint capture for all 
applicants on September 27.  Consular staff prepared a multimedia 
presentation in Czech playing on a large TV in the NIV waiting room 
that helps applicants organize their documents and explains the 
fingerprint capture process in detail.  The presentation has 
increased efficiency at the intake windows and helped reduce 
confusion during fingerprint capture.  In November the section 
 
PRAGUE 00001323  002 OF 002 
 
 
trained local staff and changed scanners to support "FSN fingerprint 
capture" with FSO verification.  This capture transition was 
successful, but Post has learned that the verification process for 
elderly applicants is often unsuccessful due to the poor quality of 
prints.  For these cases, one workstation is set aside for FSO 
capture to minimize delays in workflow. 
 
INCREASED EMBASSY WEB SITE VISIBILITY 
--------- ------- --- ---- ---------- 
 
¶8. Post continues to see applicants who have paid a Web site $25 to 
provide Internet appointments.  Post discovered that googling the 
word visa using the most popular Czech search engine brought up the 
private web site before the Embassy web site.  Post's Webmaster 
modified the embassy web pages to increase their visibility on this 
search engine.  In addition, The Public Affairs Office provided a 
press release to alert the public that appointment scheduling and 
visa application services are provided by the Department at no cost. 
 Consular management also spoke to the owner of the Web site, who 
has made some changes to the wording of his site but continues to 
operate.  Although travel agencies and other companies will continue 
to offer fee-based visa appointment services, Post believes that 
these Web changes will lead more applicants to the Embassy's 
official content. 
 
OUTREACH FOR SUMMER WORK AND TRAVEL 
-------- --- ------ ---- --- ------ 
 
¶9. Junior officers and locally employed staff visited a total of 
seven large universities in six cities during the months of October 
and November to discuss J-1 summer work and travel visas.  The 
speeches also give junior officers and locally employed staff public 
diplomacy opportunities and a chance to see economic conditions in 
different parts of the country.  The presentations emphasized the 
cultural and economic opportunities that the work and travel program 
provides.  Attendance at the events varied from 5 to 60 people, and 
Post continues to develop "best practices" to reach the greatest 
number of students, such as piggybacking on previously arranged 
events or speaking to English classes.  Post is collecting 
testimonials and pictures from previous participants for publication 
on the Embassy Web site and to add content to the existing Czech 
language J-1 brochure for students. 
 
PASSPORT APPLICATIONS INCREASE CHILD SUPPORT COLLECTIONS 
-------- ------------ -------- ----- ------- ----------- 
 
¶10. ACS identified five cases of child support arrears in excess of 
$2500 in October and November 2007 during applications for CRBAS, 
new passports, and passport extra pages.  All applicants were 
informed that they were eligible for no-fee passports for direct 
return to the United States.  Three cases were resolved when the ACS 
client made the outstanding payments, and Post can confirm that one 
case was for arrears in excess of $6500.  One case for a passport 
renewal was abandoned, and another remains in suspense pending the 
end of a 90-day suspense period for resolution or final revocation. 
 
ABSENTEE VOTING AND REGISTRATION OF AMERICANS 
-------- ------ --- ------------ -- --------- 
 
¶11.  Post is making a concerted effort in inform local Americans 
about the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act and 
how they can participate in the upcoming primaries and elections. 
Post arranged for the local English-language newspaper to publish 
some information and congen has spoken to a couple of local American 
groups.  In an effort to give us the ability to reach even more 
Americans we are making a concerted effort to increase our 
registrations and expand our e-mail distribution list. 
 
 
THOMPSON-JONES