VZCZCXYZ0005
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHUM #0036/01 0360801
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 050801Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3383
INFO RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 4053

UNCLAS ULAANBAATAR 000036 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR CA/F/P, CA/FPP, CA/VO/F/I, R/PA, EAP/CM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS CMGT KFRD OPRC XE MG
 
SUBJECT: Consular Outreach Initiative in Mongolia Pays Off, 
Suggesting Useful "Lessons Learned" for Other Posts 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  A close review of consular statistics from 
Mongolia for the last three years suggests that post's Consular 
outreach efforts have achieved good results.  The program, launched 
in 2008, helped shape a higher quality applicant pool, increased 
awareness about legal avenues for immigration and reduced visa 
fraud.  As a result, the number of patently unqualified applicants 
declined by approximately 50 percent while the number of 
applications from qualified students and exchange visitors as well 
as business/tourist travelers expanded.  We also increased awareness 
of the diversity visa program while reducing the number of confirmed 
visa fraud cases by 17 percent.  In addition, the outreach 
initiative improved understanding among the Mongolian public on how 
the American visa process works and changed Mongolian perceptions 
about the U.S. embassy.  From our perspective, such outreach efforts 
offer a cost-effective way to mitigate the impacts of a high refusal 
rate.  The purpose of this cable is to describe and assess our 
outreach efforts, with a view toward providing "lessons learned" 
that may be of interest to Consular Affairs as well as other posts. 
END SUMMARY 
 
---------- 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Mongolia in 2007 was a high fraud post and had one of the 
highest refusal rates in the world.  The typical applicant was 
young, single, and unemployed with no prior travel but a strong 
interest in long-term English language training.  In reality, the 
real motivation in most cases was to work in the United States while 
possibly taking some ESL classes at night.  These applicants spent 
at least $350 on the application process, wasting our time and their 
money.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the high refusal rate led to a 
widespread and discouraging belief among many Mongolians that it 
would be impossible ever to visit the U.S.  It also contributed to 
fraud and fostered a cynical attitude among many Mongolians about 
the U.S. Embassy as well as the United States. 
 
¶3. (SBU) In 2008, the Consular Section, fully staffed with two 
experienced consular officers, responded to this negative situation 
by launching a robust public outreach initiative to inform the 
Mongolian public, provide accurate information and respond to 
misinformation.  The Embassy outreach strategy, developed and 
supported by both the Consular Section and the Public Affairs 
Office, had three main goals:  (1) shape the applicant pool and 
improve its quality; (2) increase awareness of legal avenues of 
immigration; and (3) reduce fraud.  Using a mix of speaking 
engagements, media outreach, and paid advertising, the outreach 
effort achieved a very positive impact, resulting in a lower refusal 
rate and an improved work environment. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
Goal 1: Shape and Improve the Applicant Pool 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Our primary goal was to shape the applicant pool by 
discouraging obviously unqualified student applicants while 
encouraging more qualified ones.  In 2007, over 80 percent of all 
student visa applicants were unqualified, leading to a very high 
refusal rate which in turn fostered negative attitudes toward the 
Embassy. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The outreach effort initially focused on students who made 
up the largest pool of unqualified applicants.  Responding to this 
concern, Consular officials spoke at every single major university 
in Ulaanbaatar at least once, reaching several thousand students in 
groups ranging from large audiences involving as many as 400 
students to smaller settings with as few as 20 students.  We also 
spoke at the American Corner, participated in several student fairs, 
visited colleges and universities in the farthest corners of the 
country, and created and distributed a Mongolian language brochure 
detailing options for students wishing to visit or study in the 
United States.  In cooperation with the Embassy's commercial 
section, we also reached out to Mongolia's business community, 
addressing a variety of key business groups as well. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Media outreach formed an important part of the strategy and 
significantly extended its impact.  With support from the Public 
Affairs Office, we extended invitations to journalists to attend 
every outreach event.  In addition, Consular officials gave 
countless interviews involving both short "question and answer" 
sessions as well as longer private discussions for both print and 
broadcast journalists.  Finally, a bi-weekly "Ask the Consul" column 
was introduced, providing an important outlet for spreading accurate 
information in one of the country's leading Mongolian language 
newspapers. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
 
Goal 2: Highlight Legal Immigration Options 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Our second goal was to raise awareness about legal 
immigration channels and opportunities for working in the United 
States.  The vast majority of applicants viewed student and tourist 
visas as their primary and perhaps only avenue for immigrating to 
the United States.  We wanted to disabuse potential applicants of 
this notion, turning the focus instead toward legal immigration 
mechanisms such as the Diversity Visa (DV) program.  By sharing 
information about this program, we wanted to make it more difficult 
for unscrupulous visa brokers to prey on Mongolians who lacked 
information about the U.S. visa process. 
 
¶8. (SBU) We started by reworking our website for the DV lottery, 
making it easier for interested Mongolians to find relevant 
information.  We then hired a locally available videographer and 
produced a 30-second commercial highlighting the DV lottery.  During 
the registration period, we issued a press release about the 
program, placed a paid ad in several newspapers and, with Public 
Affairs assistance, ran the commercial on every single major 
television station.   The advertising led to several additional 
media requests including a 45-minute nationwide call-in television 
program and a three-page print interview. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
Goal 3: Reduce Fraud and Use of Visa Brokers 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Our third goal was to reduce fraud in visa applications and 
especially reduce the use of visa brokers.  In 2007, 44 percent of 
all fraud investigations revealed fraud, resulting in more than 100 
people being banned for life from the United States.  Even otherwise 
qualified applicants would hire visa brokers to assist with the 
process and submit fraudulent materials.  Indeed, according to 
popular perception the only way to obtain an American visa was to 
engage in fraud.  The rampant fraud, driven by a combination of 
misinformation, desperation, and recruitment by visa brokers, also 
made the visa adjudication process much more problematic. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Our outreach efforts explicitly addressed the issue of 
fraud.  For example, an anti-fraud warning was included in every 
outreach event as well as in all published material.  Some 
initiatives focused specifically on fraud while others, such as the 
commercial on the DV program, included a clear warning about the 
dangers of using visa brokers.  Fraud warnings featured prominently 
in the visa section of the Embassy website.  In an effort to be 
pro-active, we also placed classified ads warning about visa fraud 
in several Mongolian language newspapers that regularly featured 
advertisements by visa brokers feeding on the hopes and dreams of 
Mongolians desperate to reach the United States. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Outreach Pays Off - Evidence for Its Efficacy 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) As a result of this outreach effort, the number of 
unqualified Mongolian students applying for visas has gone down by 
some 67 percent:  in 2007, 3,308 Mongolians had their applications 
for student visas refused, compared to 1,099 during 2009.  The 
decrease occurred while the number of qualified student applicants 
remained constant, suggesting that the change was rooted in better 
self-selection rather than any changes in the adjudication process. 
 
¶12. (SBU) The outreach initiative also helped shape a better quality 
applicant pool for other visa categories.  For example, our outreach 
to students attracted more qualified exchange applicants: some 500 
qualified exchange students applied for visas in 2009, compared to 
only 169 in 2008.  Similarly, while the total number of regular visa 
applicants (tourist/business) remained steady, the number of 
qualified applicants increased by 70 percent, from 1,901 approved 
applicants in 2007 to 3,201 in 2009.  During the same period, the 
number of unqualified applications was reduced by 43 percent, from 
4,503 in 2007 to 2,340 in 2009.  While it is harder to attribute 
this solely to outreach, since B visa adjudications are more 
subjective, there is little doubt that the quality of the visa 
applicant pool in Mongolia has improved.  Overall, the Consular 
outreach program reduced the number of disappointed consular 
applicants by 50 percent, resulting in 4,000 fewer refused 
applicants; at the same time, it increased by 50 percent the number 
of individuals who could legitimately travel to the US by 
approximately 50 percent, resulting in 1,500 more approved visas. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Our second goal was to raise awareness about legal 
immigration channels and opportunities for working in the United 
States.  Our efforts benefitted from very broad media coverage, 
ensuring that the public became well aware of the DV program.  While 
 
we do not have access to the total number of Mongolian DV entries, 
we increased visits to the Embassy's web page on the "Green Card 
Lottery" by almost 400 percent from 2008 to 2009.  Other than the 
Embassy's homepage, the Green Card Lottery page was the most visited 
page throughout the application period. 
 
¶14. (SBU) Our third goal was to reduce visa fraud and abuse.  While 
hard to quantify, we believe that fraud levels have been 
significantly reduced since 2007.  Even though we conducted 43 
percent more fraud investigations, the total number of confirmed 
cases of fraud was actually reduced: in 2007, we identified fraud in 
140 of 317 fraud investigations; by contrast, in 2009 we identified 
fraud in 116 of 453 fraud investigations.  We also reduced the 
number of applicants found ineligible due to fraud, with the number 
declining from 109 in 2007 to 33 in 2009.  These decreases occurred 
despite the creation of an in-house Fraud Prevention Unit and 
improved fraud screening.  Similarly, our Surveillance Detection 
Team reported less activity by visa brokers in and around the 
Embassy grounds.  While inexact, these figures clearly support our 
belief that that visa fraud in Mongolia has declined. 
 
--------------- 
Lessons Learned 
--------------- 
 
¶15. (SBU) COMMENT: The Mongolia visa experience points to at least 
three main lessons learned that may be of interest to other posts 
facing a similar situation: 
 
¶16. First, identify specific goals early and then stay on message: 
We identified specific and concrete goals for our outreach and then 
directed our efforts towards achieving those goals.  The goals 
determined the target audience as well as specific outreach efforts. 
 Even in a country with a small population such as Mongolia, it was 
hard to reach our intended audience.  Most notably, it required 
repeating the same few points over and over again for many different 
audiences and in a variety of settings, thus ensuring the basic 
message eventually broke through.  Consular officials delivered more 
than 20 speeches to several thousand students representing all major 
universities in Mongolia.  We also gave countless TV, radio and 
print interviews; organized advertising, both paid and unpaid; 
distributed press releases; and revised our website to ensure that 
it also advanced our key objectives.  In each case, the message 
directly promoted the three over-arching goals that had been set at 
the outset.  By identifying our goals early and focusing our efforts 
towards those goals, we ensured that a consistent message was 
delivered to many audiences. 
 
¶17. (SBU) Second, present the same basic message in a variety of 
ways:  While it is important to stay on message, we found that we 
had to repackage our stories or speeches to ensure continued 
coverage among an expanded audience.  For example, when a television 
program requested comment on a Mongolian student who won a 
scholarship to the U.S. and was issued a visa, we used the 
opportunity to both congratulate the student while also highlighting 
key student visa requirements.  Efforts like this were useful in 
reaching a different segment of the Mongolian population. 
In-country travel also proved very effective.  While each trip was 
keyed to a speech or outreach event and received blanket coverage in 
the region, we also used the travel to reiterate our core message. 
For example, after one trip to a remote region we worked with the 
media to formulate a human interest story about how the American 
consul traveled to the region to discuss the pressing issue of 
student visa requirements.  The story thus reflected and re-enforced 
our core message while doing it with a new twist. 
 
¶18. (SBU) Third, be proactive:  While working closely with the 
Public Affairs Section, it was also important for the Consular 
section to look for ways to be proactive.  We found it useful to 
identify our own ideas and outreach opportunities and then work with 
Public Affairs to develop and refine them.  For example, some of our 
most successful efforts such as television commercials, the "Ask the 
Consul" column and exchange visa brochures were initiated from 
within the Consular section.  While PAS was critical in terms of 
implementation, the Consular section made an essential contribution 
by first voicing the idea and then suggesting possible partners. 
For its part, PAS was especially helpful in identifying key press 
contacts, reworking consular materials into a press friendly format, 
and working with regional media. 
 
---------- 
Conclusion 
---------- 
 
¶19. (SBU) A sustained outreach effort requires a significant 
commitment of time and resources.  However, in the case of Mongolia, 
this was an investment that paid off.  As a result, we shaped an 
 
improved applicant pool while highlighting legal immigration 
mechanisms and reducing visa fraud.  Previously, our refusal rate 
was a source of friction and tension in the bilateral relationship, 
leading to negative Mongolian perceptions about the United States. 
While we cannot change visa standards, we can and did change the 
impact of those necessarily strict standards in terms of how they 
are perceived and understood by the Mongolian public.  The Mongolian 
government has noted and expressed appreciation for our efforts, 
most notably during a recent meeting with the Ambassador when a 
senior advisor to the Prime Minister specifically thanked the 
Embassy for the improvements that he himself had witnessed over 
time.  From our perspective, the outreach effort was a notable 
success, one that we intend to continue into 2010 and beyond.  End 
comment. 
 
ADDLETON