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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 STATE 128423 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS KFRD CMGT
SUBJECT: IRANIAN THIRD COUNTRY NATIONAL VISA APPLICANT FRAUD 
PREVENTION CONFERENCE 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY.  An Office of Fraud Prevention Programs (CA/FPP)-hosted 
conference focusing on fraud issues and consular processing for 
Iranian citizens, held in Washington, D.C., from September 29 through 
October 1,  brought together 16 consular officers from top 
Iranian-national visa processing posts with representatives from the 
Department of State and other U.S. Government agencies.  Participants 
discussed topics unique to the processing of Iranian cases, such as 
Iranian document security features and issuance procedures, Iranian 
naming conventions, Security Advisory Opinion (SAO) processing, and 
Iranian sanctions. 
 
¶2.  In addition to bolstering consular knowledge of fraud prevention 
resources, the conference aimed to standardize the processing of 
Iranian cases and improve the security of the process by establishing 
consistent baselines for identity and relationship indicators, 
providing improved customer service to bona fide applicants, and 
eliminating real or perceived advantages of applying at one post over 
another.  This cable summarizes many of these resources and 
recommendations, including implementation of some standard operating 
procedures for handling Iranian cases.  END SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Uniform Data Entry for Iranian NIV Applicants 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  Uniform data entry of Iranian applicants is vital in preventing 
visa shopping and maximizing our automated screening resources.  When 
entering Iranian applicant data in nonimmigrant visa (NIV) and 
immigrant visa (IV) cases, consular officers should collect and 
include the applicant's full ten-digit national ID number instead of 
the old seven-digit number found on the shenasnameh, or Iranian birth 
certificate.  This ten-digit ID can be found in Farsi on newer 
passports and in English and Farsi on the new national ID card 
(kart-de-melli).  (Note:  A Farsi/English number translation guide is 
available on CA/FPP's Intranet website under "Conferences" for those 
posts without Farsi-speaking staff.)  In addition, as Iranian women 
rarely use their husbands' surnames, consular officers should include 
the husband's surname in the alias field for all married female 
applicants as an important fraud prevention screening technique.  For 
more information on Iranian names, please see 9 FAM Appendix F 518. 
 
------------------------------- 
Assistance with Farsi Documents 
------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  CA/FPP has posted a number of guides to official Iranian 
documents, Iranian naming conventions, and much more on the CA/FPP 
Intranet website.  The website should be the first resource for posts 
not familiar with Iranian documents and norms.  However, even posts 
that process significant numbers of Iranian applicants have varying 
levels of access to Farsi speaking officers or LES staff.  Posts with 
greater Farsi-related resources may be called upon to provide 
appropriate assistance for posts without Farsi-speaking officers or 
LES staff.  If your post needs limited assistance understanding and 
evaluating Iranian documents, please coordinate that request through 
your CA/FPP post liaison officer who will help find another post or 
U.S. Government expert who can assist you.  If you believe your post 
has a sustained demand for this type of expertise, consular managers 
should raise the matter with their regional management analyst in 
CA/EX and post liaison officer in the Visa Office's Post Liaison 
Division (CA/VO/F/P). 
 
STATE 00128423  002 OF 004 
 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
Inclusion of Iranian Fraud Trends in Fraud Summaries of Designated 
Processing Posts 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶5.  CA/FPP has undertaken a new initiative to compile and maintain an 
Iranian Country Fraud Summary to be posted on our Intranet website. 
Iranian-designated processing posts are requested to assist in this 
endeavor by reporting specifically on trends in Iranian NIV-, IV-, 
and American Citizen Services (ACS)-related cases in their 
semi-annual fraud summaries.  CA/FPP will then extract and 
consolidate Iranian-related content into a comprehensive fraud 
summary which will be available to all posts and appropriate USG 
partners.  The first edition of the fraud summary will be posted 
soon. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
B2 Visas for Non-Business Travel and Sanctions 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶6.  Consular officers processing Iranian B1/B2 (visitor for business 
or pleasure) applicants should be alert to the potential for abuse of 
visa status for the purposes of violating sanctions, particularly for 
Iranian-resident business owners or executives.  Although it is 
impossible to completely control an applicant's activities once they 
have entered the United States, consular officers may wish to 
consider issuing only B2 visas to applicants traveling for personal 
reasons.  While this will not completely prevent them from engaging 
in unauthorized activities, it will more correctly communicate to 
Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection 
(DHS/CBP) officers and other DHS entities the applicant's stated 
purpose of travel at the time of visa application.  For more 
information on what business activities are appropriate for Iranian 
citizens on B1 visas and what activities require waivers from the 
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), 
consular officers should consult 9 FAM 40.31 N5.1-2 or 
www.treas.gov/offices 
/enforcement/ofac/programs/iran/iran.shtml.  CA/FPP also has 
information on OFAC's Sanctions Enforcement Program on the Iran Fraud 
Prevention Conference page on its Intranet website. 
 
-------------------------- 
Conveying 3B Visa Refusals 
-------------------------- 
 
¶8.  Per 9 FAM 40.4 N5.1, if an alien is refused a visa on security 
grounds, consular officers must restrict the statement of the reasons 
for the refusal to a reference to the law or to the Code of Federal 
Regulations.  Posts are not required to, nor should they, release 
information of a confidential nature to the interested party.  In the 
case of applicants who are not regularly resident in the post's 
consular district and who are refused as the result of an SAO 
response, posts are permitted to inform the applicant on the phone 
(instead of requiring another personal appearance) and via e-mail; 
however, posts must ensure that applicants are informed by both 
means.  Posts should scan a copy of the e-mail correspondence into 
the NIV record for purposes of record-keeping.  This exception is 
made to avoid imposing significant travel costs upon the applicant 
solely for the purpose of refusing a visa in person.  This is an 
exceptional circumstance and is not permitted for locally resident 
Iranian applicants or for applicants of any other nationality 
regardless of place of residence. 
 
 
------------------------------------------ 
 
STATE 00128423  003 OF 004 
 
 
Personal Appearance for Passport Pass-Back 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶9.  Currently, there are no specific regulations requiring visa-ed 
passports to be collected in person by the bearer.  Posts are 
encouraged to consider more liberal options for passport pass-back 
for applicants resident in Iran.  Posts may wish to consider allowing 
friends and family members who present a signed letter of 
authorization from the bearer to collect the passport.  Posts may 
also wish consider using a secure courier service to deliver 
passports in-country (i.e., to a local hotel where the applicant is 
staying) to eliminate the need for the applicant to travel personally 
to the consular section to collect his or her passport.  Questions on 
what methods are most appropriate for your country and applicant pool 
should be referred to CA/VO/F/P and to the appropriate CA/EX post 
management analyst. 
 
------------------------------ 
Overseas Document Verification 
------------------------------ 
 
¶10.  On occasion, consular staff may receive requests for 
verification of Iranian documents in connection with an application 
for immigration benefits, or a review of immigration status from DHS 
or other U.S. Government agencies.  Because our overseas missions do 
not have a reliable means for verifying documents issued in Iran, 
consular staff should generally decline to accept these requests.  If 
post determines it appropriate to review documents and obvious fraud 
indicators are evident, consular officers can and should highlight 
areas in which the document differs from other similar documents 
encountered at post.  Officers should make clear in their response, 
however, that the analysis of the document is based solely on post 
experience and that post can neither definitively confirm nor refute 
the document's veracity.  Posts that have questions about what is 
appropriate in a specific case should consult with their CA/FPP post 
liaison officer. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
Managing Appointment Systems for Iranian Applicants 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶11.  Several conference attendees expressed concerns about abuse of 
appointment systems for Iranian applicants, particularly Iranian 
travel agents, resulting in high no-show rates.  One best practice 
that was discussed during the conference was to publish the day and 
time that appointments would be released so that the general public 
would have an equal chance at scheduling an appointment time when 
made available without having to work through a third party.  Another 
post combats this problem by not allowing canceled appointments to be 
rescheduled, discouraging third parties and travel agencies from 
booking appointments using "dummy" data and then later canceling and 
immediately rebooking once they have sold the slot to an individual 
applicant.  For posts that have more severe problems with appointment 
fraud and misuse, they should work with their CA/EX, CA/VO, and 
CA/FPP post liaison officers to identify the best solution. 
 
---------- 
Conclusion 
---------- 
 
¶12.  CA/FPP sincerely appreciates the excellent participation by 
posts and presenters during this important conference.  In an effort 
to make conference topics available to a wide audience, CA/FPP has 
established an Iran Fraud Prevention Conference webpage on our 
Intranet site at the following URL:  http://intranet 
.ca.state.gov/ fraud/fpu/FPP%20Conferences/23262.aspx, and also on 
 
STATE 00128423  004 OF 004 
 
 
our classified Intranet website.  These sites provide useful 
resources on Iranian visa processing, naming customs, Department of 
Treasury-OFAC sanctions, asylum and refugee processing, trends in 
alien smuggling, and more.  We continually strive to provide posts 
with as much information as possible to facilitate processing of 
these applications in a secure and customer-service oriented fashion. 
 Posts are encouraged to contribute to their CA/FPP liaison officer 
for posting additional helpful resources or reporting on Iran-related 
topics. 
CLINTON