Visa Application Process for BPO Workers
for Training Visas in the United States
(Article 1: First in a Series of Articles regarding the challenges of applying for a US Visa)
by Ronald A. Nair, Esq., Attorney at Law

This section will be featured bi-monthly, courtesy of John Clements to educate their clients and the public on US Visa process.

The increase in the number of American-based BPO firms in countries such as the Philippines and India poses special challenges to corporate HR managers in terms of having their Indian/Philippine employees travel to the USA to undergo training and client consultation. Given the close customer service and consultations aspects required to make a complex BPO service project a success, traveling to the USA on business will continue to become a major tool in the BPO business in effectively managing client relationships. There are just limits to what video/telephone conference calls can accomplish given the cultural/language differences between nationals of India/Philippines and the Americans. Extended face-to-face interaction have proven highly effective managing client relationship particularly on complex B2B BPO projects, and such interaction only increases the bonding experience among professional service workers interacting over long distances, and thus the success of BPO projects.

Prior to the Internet boon & the lowering of communication costs, when professional service labor workers from the Philippines and India were largely unknown to Corporate America, the vast majority of foreign business personnel workers employed by US firms came from the countries of the US Visa Waiver program which included Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and Western Europe 1. Today, India and the Philippines lead the way in the growth of the labor force for the BPO industry.

For a BPO company to send nationals from India or the Philippines for advance training, one must apply for a regular 6-month B-1/2 visa & have a Non-Immigrant visa interview at the US Embassy. Please note that neither India nor the Philippines are part of the B-1 Visa Waiver program composed of 20 PLUS industrially advanced countries. Under the B-1 Visa Waiver program, a Corporate HR Manager can simply send nationals from one of these Visa Waiver Countries anytime to the USA without visa, and this facilitates the trade of services between these Visa Waiver countries and the United States over the years

The trade in services between the Philippines/India and United States is a relatively new phenomenon as a result of internet creation and lowering of communication costs. Changes in the US visa laws have not kept pace, and as a result, well-employed Philippine and Indian Professional Service Workers of these BPO firms are subject to be interviewed at the US Embassy to get the B-1 visa. The biggest problem is that the US Embassy has been rejecting B-1 visa applications in non-industrial countries of rates exceeding 55%, and thus, has placed an element of unpredictability into the International Human Resource Personnel process. The reason why for such a high number is that the Foreign Service officers, post 9/11, are under pressure to scrutinize every case as fast as possible and thus it is easier to just reject an application than to take any chances. Many B-1 cases have been turned down on the legal basis of US Law known as 214(b) which requires the consular officer to presume that ALL visa applicants [except for H-1B, L-1, and E-1 visa applicants] as intending immigrants to the USA, unless they could prove otherwise to the discretionary value judgment of the consular officer, and thus, they ALL must be rejected.

Corporate HR Managers wanting to send their candidates for a visa interview at the US Embassy must carefully assess the risks and make the time to prepare their employees for the US Embassy interview in order to decrease the chances of rejection to manageable target level of 10-20%. This means knowing as much as possible about the US Consular officers and how they view the law.

The US Consular officers most likely interviewing your applicants are known as Foreign Service Officers or FSOs. Many FSOs, who will be in their first job as a US Diplomat, are a select group of Americans who become FSOs by going through a highly competitive recruitment process where, on average, there has been 14,000 applicants, and eventually, only 200 applicants were ultimately offered jobs. Although these new diplomats have ambitions of being US Ambassadors, Charge D’Affairs, Assistant Secretaries of State or high level political/economic officer(s), for the first 2-5 years of their career, they must spend work as consular officers in assessing whether or NOT to issue a visa to a visa applicant. According to the former Head of the NIV Unit in Manila, these entry level jobs provide a good training ground in enabling the fledgling American Diplomat to make tough decisions based upon incomplete facts. The United States has an Up or OUT career structure, and thus, these new diplomats, at some point, would either have to be given a promotion or to be told to LEAVE the Foreign Service, and their performance will be partially based on how well they perform their jobs as consular officers. Under enormous pressure to process the high volume of visa applicants, many FSOs find it hard to find the time to undergo training in applying often very confusing US Immigration laws and regulations, and this increases the likelihood of an unfair and ill-informed adverse decision.

The Next Article will discuss 1) how the FSO approach their jobs, and 2) the interview process at the US Embassy.

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1 Countries include Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom refers only to British citizens who have the unrestricted right of permanent abode in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man);