VZCZCXRO3443
PP RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCG #0157/01 1462317
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 262317Z MAY 09 ZDK
FM AMCONSUL CHENNAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2283
INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 3678
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 5373
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 1097
RUEHNEH/AMCONSUL HYDERABAD
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 1073
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0241
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 0008
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 2521

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENNAI 000157 
 
CA/FPP FOR JILL NYSTROM 
DS/CR/CFI FOR GALEN NACE 
DS/CR/VPAU FOR TIM LONGANACRE AND YVETTE COLMAN 
SCA/INS 
DRL 
CA/P 
Pass to DHS/CIS, DHS/ICE, DHS/CBP, DHS/FDNS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KFRD CVIS ASEC PHUM PREL PREF IN
SUBJECT: Over Half of Tibetan Visitors from India Overstay Visas 
 
CHENNAI 00000157  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  Mission India recently conducted a validation 
study of the 496 B1/B2 tourist visas granted in CY-2007 and CY-2008 
to stateless individuals carrying Indian-issued identity papers. 
All butQ of those applicants was Tibetan.  Over half of these 
travelers appear to be potential overstays in the United States.  As 
a result of this study, the consular section has reviewed its visa 
relationship with the Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  End 
Summary. 
 
----------------- 
Tibetans in India 
----------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Tibetans are one of two officially recognized and supported 
refugee groups in India. An estimated 110,000 Tibetans reside within 
the country. The GOI has provided land for nearly 40 
agricultural-based refugee settlements, helping Tibetans to preserve 
their culture and traditions and to enjoy self-sufficiency. The 
settlements are concentrated in two geographic regions - around 
Dharamsala in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh and in the 
southern state of Karnataka. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The refugees came to India in two waves: directly after the 
Dalai Lama fled China in 1959 and in the aftermath of the 
liberalization of China's emigration policy in 1979.  The GOI 
requires all Tibetans over 18 years-old to apply for a Registration 
Certificate (RC), which essentially grants permanent resident status 
in India.  The Representative of the Dalai Lama in New Delhi, Tempa 
Tsering, noted that newly arrived Tibetans from Tibet must wait 
longer for their RC approval, but denied claims that the GOI refuses 
to grant documentation to these Tibetans.  The annually renewable RC 
is a prerequisite for the Identity Certificate, a travel document 
resembling a passport issued by the GOI.  Tibetans must possess an 
RC to obtain work, rent an apartment, or open a bank account. 
 
-------------------- 
Now Tibetans in U.S. 
-------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Throughout Mission India, stateless individuals, almost 
exclusively Tibetan refugees, have applied primarily for R-1 
religious visas or B1/B2 tourist visas.  The refusal rates in both 
visa categories have traditionally been fairly high.  From January 
1, 2007 to December 31, 2008, Mission India received 709 R-1 
applications by stateless individuals, with an overall refusal rate 
of 62 percent.  New Delhi received 517 applications, refusing 62 
percent; Chennai 55, refusing 67 percent; Mumbai 117, refusing 56 
percent; and Kolkata 20, refusing 90 percent.  The Mission-wide 
refusal rate for stateless B1/B2 applicants was 81 percent.  Other 
visa categories have a comparatively small number of Tibetan 
applicants, although a group of 21 Tibetans recently spent a year on 
P3 performer visas, 16 of whom extended legally for a second year. 
Of the remaining five individuals, one is unaccounted for and the 
other four returned to India. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Given the small number of issued stateless B1/B2 applicants 
in CY-2007 and CY-2008, Mission India performed a 100 percent 
validation study using entry/exit records (ADIS) and helpful 
analysis by CA/FPP.  Of the 496 cases reviewed, all but one 
individual was of Tibetan origin.  According to ADIS records, 276 
individuals (55.6 percent) appear to be potential overstays and have 
not returned to India.  New Delhi issued 433 out of 2,159 B1/B2 
applicants and 223 applicants (51.5 percent) overstayed.  Mumbai 
issued 12 out of 45 applicants and 11 (91.7 percent) overstayed. 
Chennai issued 57 out of 461 and 39 (68.4 percent) overstayed. 
Kolkata issued five out of 71 and three (60 percent) overstayed. 
 
¶6. (SBU) To confirm the high overstay rate, CA/FPP double-checked 
all of the ADIS data under multiple spellings and formats for each 
traveler's biodata.  FPUs Chennai and New Delhi contacted randomly 
selected overstays.  Over half of the calls resulted in 
confirmations from family members that the applicants were living in 
U.S., or in one case, Canada.  The remaining phone numbers were 
either fraudulent or disconnected.  In short, the data appears 
 
CHENNAI 00000157  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
accurate. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Limited USCIS data indicate that in FYs 2007, 2008 and 2009 
through April 28, 1,524 individuals of purported Tibetan origin 
applied for asylum.  Some, possibly most, of those individuals 
likely traveled from Nepal or India, but it is suspected that many 
claimed asylum in identities different than the one in which they 
entered the United States.  The visa admission class for nearly 40 
percent of the asylum seekers (596) was unknown.  Of the remaining 
60 percent, the highest known visa admission categories were B1 or 
B2 (244 cases) and R-1 (158). 
 
¶8. (SBU) Of the visas issued in India, there does not appear to be 
much, if any, coordinated document fraud.  The applicants who 
overstayed shared little in common other than their Tibetan 
heritage.  Twelve of the overstay cases were children, 11 of whom 
were traveling with their parents or purported relatives.  Some 
common profiles were shop owners of all ages visiting friends, 
artists of all ages going for an exhibition, college students 
visiting a cousin's wedding, and even monks and former prime 
ministers of the Tibetan government-in-exile whose bona fides were 
verified by the Dalai Lama's office and who were going to accompany 
the Dalai Lama on his U.S. tour.  Two of the overstays presented 
Class B referral letters from an Embassy employee. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Over fifty of the issued cases have possible ties to the 
Office of the Dalai Lama and may result in permanent 
ineligibilities.  Several were current or former Tibetan 
government-in-exile employees who either overstayed in the U.S. or 
facilitated the overstay of another individual.  Other individuals 
were vouched for directly by the Office of the Dalai Lama.  The 
Mission enjoys a close working relationship with the Office of the 
Dalai Lama.  Due to several previous cases of Tibetan fraud and the 
inherent difficulties of verifying the veracity of Tibetans living 
in camps, Mission India FPUs would periodically verify the bona 
fides of visa applicants with the Office of the Dalai Lama.  An 
important lesson of this review is that the correspondence from the 
Dalai Lama's office should always be in writing to ensure clarity 
and accountability.  The number of overstays of even Dalai 
Lama-verified cases highlights the importance of a thorough 
interview as a routine fraud prevention tool. 
 
----------------- 
What Happens Next 
----------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) With the recent changes to the R-1 visa category requiring 
DHS petitions, the number of Tibetans applying for R-1 visas has 
dropped significantly.  Mission India expects to see a significant 
up-tick in the number of stateless applicants applying for B1/B2 
visas.  Given the overwhelming Tibetan overstay rate, Mission India 
will place even more scrutiny on all stateless visa applicants. 
Mission India has reported the list of potential overstays to CA for 
revocation of any valid visas and to ICE for appropriate action. 
FPU Chennai has entered P6C1 and P6E lookouts, as appropriate, for 
all individuals, both in the U.S. and in India, whose visas have 
expired. 
 
¶11. (SBU) The Tibetan overstay issue is not limited to India.  As a 
result of this study, CA/FPP randomly sampled 257 stateless 
(Tibetan) B1/B2 visa holders issued at Embassy Kathmandu and found a 
59.9 percent overstay rate.  Again, the only commonality among the 
applicants was the stateless travel document.  The range of 
travelers from Kathmandu was not dissimilar to those from India with 
the exceptions that there were no child travelers and nearly none 
with connections to the Office of the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan 
government-in-exile.  Transiting Tibetans originating in Nepal have 
also been detained recently at Delhi's international airport with 
photo-substituted passports. 
 
¶12. (SBU) On May 1, the Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs 
(MCCA) met with the Dalai Lama's representative in New Delhi to 
discuss the rash of overstays of Tibetan travelers.  Representative 
Tempa Tsering expressed concern over the misuse of visas by Tibetans 
 
CHENNAI 00000157  003 OF 003 
 
 
and committed to investigating the cases confirmed by his office. 
He pledged to closely monitor any visa support letters coming from 
his office and to personally review fifteen cases identified by the 
Embassy as having connections to his office.  On May 18 he met again 
with the MCCA to report that five of the fifteen have actually 
returned to India, but the other ten were unaccounted for. 
Regarding the nine monks who applied together in Chennai, 
Representative Tsering noted "it is quite clear the monks have 
misused" the visa, and that his office was taking "every possible 
effort to try to curb and root out these unhealthy practices 
indulged by some of our people." 
 
¶13. (U) This cable has been cleared by all posts in Mission India. 
 
KAPLAN