VZCZCXRO1256
PP RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCG #0174/01 1560251
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 050251Z JUN 09
FM AMCONSUL CHENNAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2308
INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 3701
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 5383
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 1107
RUEHNEH/AMCONSUL HYDERABAD
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENNAI 000174 
 
CA/FPP FOR JILL NYSTROM 
DS/CR/CFI FOR DAVID BRACKINS 
DS/CR/OCI FOR GALEN NACE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CMGT ASEC IN
SUBJECT: Applying in Chennai: No English?  No problem. 
 
Ref:  A) Chennai 77, B) Chennai 13, C) New Delhi 638, D) 08 Kolkata 
89 
 
CHENNAI 00000174  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. Summary.  Consulate Chennai conducted a validation study for the 
first three months of calendar year 2008 of its non-English speaking 
B1/B2 applicants and found the visa holders had a 97.6 percent 
compliance rate.  Post adjudicated approximately 84,000 visas during 
this time, including 11,253 non-English speaking interviews (13.4 
percent of Post total) in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu and 
Kannada.  The study randomly reviewed 1,589 of the 8,749 visas 
issued during the study period.  The issuance rate is only seven 
percent lower than the Post average, and non-English speakers tend 
to have less education, less money, and more incentive to work 
illegally in the United States, suggesting Post's adjudications were 
on target.  End Summary. 
 
------------------------ 
Background & Methodology 
------------------------ 
 
¶2. English is widely spoken in South India as a second language. 
English is the official subsidiary language of India with Hindi 
being the official language.  However, many people in South India do 
not speak Hindi but opt for English as a medium of conversation 
between people from different provinces. 
 
¶3. Due in large part to the high prevalence of English speakers and 
preference to study science at the high school and university level, 
Consulate Chennai adjudicates more H-1B skilled worker visas than 
any other post.  India is also currently second in the world in 
sending F-1 college students to the U.S. with over 90,000 Indian 
students currently in F-1 status.  This large number of people 
living long-term in the U.S. also fuels much of the demand for B1/B2 
visa applicants as family members, usually parents, in India apply 
to visit them. 
 
¶4. The visa applicants who do not speak English, referred to at Post 
as "language applicants," tend to be people from rural areas with 
less education and lower income compared against people who do speak 
English.  They would appear to have the most to gain by migrating to 
the United States illegally. 
 
¶5. Consulate Chennai offers applicants the option to book their visa 
interviews in either English or one of the other six predominant 
languages spoken in South India.  The languages are Tamil (spoken by 
people in Tamil Nadu province), Malayalam (Kerala), Kannada 
(Karnataka), Telugu (Andhra Pradesh), and Hindi and Urdu (Muslims in 
Andhra Pradesh). 
 
¶6.  Post looked at the people who booked a non-English appointment 
from 1-JAN-2008 to 31-MAR-2008 and were issued a visa.  Post issued 
a total of 8,749 visas to language applicants during this time. 
Post randomly selected approximately 15 percent of each of the six 
different languages spoken, unless the sample size was too small, as 
in the case of Hindi and Urdu, for which all cases were examined. 
The applicants were sorted by language, and Post sent the list to 
USVISIT to conduct Arrival/Departure Information System (ADIS) 
checks on the travelers.  If ADIS showed that the individual was 
still in the U.S. illegally, Post called the applicant's home in 
India to check if the ADIS findings were correct. 
 
-------- 
Findings 
-------- 
 
¶7. Post's overall issuance rate for the study period was 84.9 
percent.  For language interviews, the issuance rate drops to 77.8 
percent.  This data, along with the 97.6 percent compliance rate of 
issued cases, suggests that officers had a high degree of accuracy 
in their adjudications.  The language applicants currently in the 
U.S. illegally are mostly parents who said they were visiting their 
children on work visas in the United States. 
 
------ 
Telugu 
------ 
 
¶8. Telugu-speaking applicants, mostly people from Andhra Pradesh, 
constituted a large percentage of Post's applicant pool prior to the 
start-up of Consulate General Hyderabad in March 2009.  During the 
study period, they applied for more visas than the other five 
language applicants combined.  Andhra Pradesh, and specifically 
Hyderabad, has long been a source of fraudulent documents for all of 
India (ref A). This is due in part to the large Telugu diaspora in 
the U.S. and the mobile nature of people from Andhra Pradesh.  This 
 
CHENNAI 00000174  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
would explain why Post had an issuance rate of 75.8 percent for 
Telugu interviews which is lower than the Post average of 84.9 
percent.  Post looked at 817 randomly selected applicants out of 
4,652 Telugu language applicants issued a visa.  Of those, only 14 
accrued any illegal presence (98.3 percent compliance rate). 
However, another 30 individuals went to the U.S. and filed for an 
extension to remain more than 6 months, though they were legally 
present. 
 
¶9. The issued Telugu applicants were by far most likely to be 
parents of H-1B visa holders visiting their children.  The refused 
applicants were often other relatives such as aunts, uncles, and 
cousins going to visit family members.  Many times these people were 
using fraudulent documents in order to establish a relationship. 
Illegal document vendors often use a distant relationship as it 
still provides the mala fide applicant with a purpose and support 
for the visit. This provides an excuse for not being able to trace 
the applicant's name back to the person in the United States. 
 
¶10. The Telugus who are illegally present in the U.S. are all 
parents of individuals legally in the U.S., whether a legal 
permanent resident (LPR) or H-1B holder.  However, Post has 
discovered during FPU interviews that another common fraud trend is 
for older applicants (approximately 45-55) to purchase fake 
documents claiming to visit their child in the U.S. when their true 
intent is to work illegally.  Post has also uncovered two recent 
instances where applicants have obtained an Indian passport in a 
false identity and birth date, sometimes decades earlier, attempting 
to pass themselves off as parents visiting their children. 
 
----- 
Tamil 
----- 
 
¶11. Tamil is an official language of Tamil Nadu, where Chennai is 
located, and the second largest language applicant group Post 
interviewed during the study period.  Most applicants from Chennai, 
though, speak English well enough to conduct a visa interview.  The 
vast majority of the Tamil language applicants are from rural Tamil 
Nadu, make their living from agriculture, and rarely have beyond a 
tenth grade education.  As in other provinces in South India, the 
Tamil-speaking applicants often are parents of H-1B holders going to 
visit their child.  The issuance rate for Tamil-speaking applicants 
was 82.2 percent during the study period.  Post looked at 354 out of 
1,952 issued applicants randomly selected during the study period 
and found that only 5 people (98.6 compliance rate) accrued any 
illegal presence.  Four of the five who are in the U.S. illegally 
were retired parents going to visit their child who was on an H-1B 
visa.  The other individual illegally present was a medical 
attendant accompanying his patient in the United States. 
 
--------- 
Malayalam 
--------- 
 
¶12. Malayalam is spoken almost exclusively in the Kerala province. 
Kerala is famous throughout India for the number of nurses it 
produces.  Post processes many E-3 immigrant visas for nurses from 
Kerala.  Most of the NIV visas issued are for parents going to visit 
these LPR nurses (ref B).  For thousands of years, Kerala has been a 
major trading hub for South India.  This exposure to outsiders may 
account for Malayalam-speakers' proclivity for emigration to work 
and then retire in Kerala.  Many of the Gulf states employ Malayalam 
laborers.  Post also sees more applicants for immigrant visas than 
for H-1Bs as the travelers from Kerala tend to be manual laborers 
rather than engineers.  Therefore, the NIV applicant pool differs 
from the rest of South India, where parents are going to visit their 
children who are engineers or computer programmers.  Malayalam 
language applicants tend to be parents of nurses, for whom Post has 
historically seen high compliance rate.  Post has seen lower 
compliance rates among Malayalam NIV applicants for younger people 
visiting family and Christian priests (and those claiming to be 
priests) ministering to the large Malayali Christian population. 
 
¶13. The overall issuance rate for Malayalam-speaking applicants 
during the study was 71.3 percent.  Post randomly chose 289 out of 
1,270 issuances during the study period and found that eight 
individuals (97.2 percent compliance rate) accumulated illegal 
presence.  Seven out of the eight applicants who over overstayed 
were parents of legal LPR holders visiting their children.  In all 
instances, the case notes indicated the individuals had children and 
owned a home in India.  Having more overstays from parents is likely 
because parents are issued visas far more frequently than other 
language applicants who are often refused 214b. 
 
 
CHENNAI 00000174  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
-------------- 
Hindi and Urdu 
-------------- 
 
¶14. Native Hindi and Urdu speakers in South India are limited to 
Muslims from Hyderabad and are also a high fraud category.  Muslims 
from other South Indian provinces would be more likely to speak the 
language native to the province, i.e. Tamil, Malayalam, or Kannada. 
As noted in para 8, Hyderabad is a hub for fraud.  Furthermore, 
Hindi and Urdu language applicants rarely are parents going to visit 
their H-1B children.  They tend to be small business owners going to 
visit a cousin or take an expensive package tour, or newlyweds 
taking a tourist trip that will cost two years of salary.  This 
accounts for a low issuance rate of 32.1 percent during the study 
period.  Delhi conducted a validation study of its Hindi speakers 
(ref C) and found similarly lower issuance and compliance rate and 
higher fraud rates than the general applicant pool. 
 
¶15. Post reviewed 47 of the 208 Hindi visas issued during the study 
period.  Post found that 2 people (95.7 percent compliance) were 
illegally in the U.S.  Both of those unrelated overstays claimed to 
be visiting an LPR brothers who was a doctor.  Another individual 
was turned around by Customs and Border Patrol and had his visa 
revoked 6c1 for material misrepresentation. 
 
¶16. Post had a small sampling of Urdu applicants, so all 82 visas 
issued during the study period were reviewed.  Seven of these 
individuals were reported as overstays (91.5 percent compliance). 
Five of those overstays were a young couple with their three small 
children visiting an LPR brother who was a doctor.  Post 
investigated the three overstays visiting LPR brothers who were 
doctors but discovered no other commonalities.  Another woman 
claimed to be visiting her L2, intra-company transfer dependent 
daughter.  The final overstaying applicant was a female poultry farm 
owner visiting a cousin. 
 
------- 
Kannada 
------- 
 
¶17. Kannada is one of the official languages of Karnataka, where 
Bangalore is the major city and makes up the smallest pool of 
language applicants.  Most Kannada speakers, however, do not come 
from Bangalore but the rural villages.  Kannada applicants typically 
perpetrate less fraud, are better off financially, and therefore 
seem to have stronger ties to India.  The 84.7 percent issuance rate 
for Kannada interviewees almost matches the issuance rate for the 
general applicant pool.  Post randomly reviewed 100 of the 592 
applicants issued during the study period, and only four accrued any 
illegal presence. All of the individuals with illegal presence were 
over 55 years old and visiting family. 
 
--------------- 
Conclusion 
--------------- 
 
¶18. Consulate Chennai's language applicants issued visas are largely 
compliant.  This seems due to the large number of parents visiting 
their H-1B, H4, or LPR children.  Other posts, such as Kolkata, have 
studied applicants over 55 years of age (ref D) and found them to 
have high compliance rates.  The older applicants who do not speak 
English and claim to be parents of children legally in the U.S. 
appear to have the same high compliance rate.  Younger language 
applicants seem to be rightly refused as they tend to have weaker 
ties to India and are more likely to benefit from illegal 
immigration.  Language applicants visiting siblings or cousins have 
been a cause for concern, especially from Hindi and Urdu speakers. 
 
KAPLAN