U.S. Tightened Visa Application

The U.S. embassy in Seoul recently tightened visa applications for entry to the U.S. For example, the new visa application forms ask applicants to record whether they have received special military training in relation to terrorism.

The U.S. embassy in Seoul announced yesterday, “We began to use the newly extended visa application forms from March 4th.” The new visa application forms have been extended to 3 pages of A4 papers from the previous 2 pages and contain 18 more questions, 54 in total.

The tightening of the visa application form is a follow-up measure to the 9.11 terrorist acts.

The new forms require applicants to state Ñ whether they have received special training involving arms, gunpowder, nuclear, and bio-chemical weapons Ñ details of their military services, including served country, rank, specialty, and duration of service Ñ whether they have ever involved in armed conflicts, such as warfare.

In addition, the newly added items also ask applicants to state a list of countries and year they have visited in the past 10 years, passport issuing countries, names of their two previous work places, their present and past involvement in civic organizations, and their academic background, except elementary school.

An official of the U.S. embassy in Seoul said, “It is related to the U.S. government`s policy to strengthen the entry requisite for terror-suspects after the 9.11 terrorist acts. The U.S. State Department ordered all American embassies to use the new application forms in January.”

Young-Sik Kim spear@donga.com