US Ambassador Satisfied With New Visa Procedures

Ms Kathryn Dee Robinson, United States Ambassador, on Friday visited the Spintex Road branch of Standard Chartered Bank (Stanchart) to acquaint herself with the processing of visa application fees and interview appointments through the bank.

The Ring Road Central and Spintex Road branches of the bank have since April 2, this year, been processing all US non-immigrant visa application fees and interview appointments on behalf of the embassy. Interviews for all visas, however, continue to be conducted at the Consular Section at Osu.

The Ambassador said the collection of non-immigrant visa application fees by a bank is the standard procedure in most countries and the embassy is bringing this up-to-date with the rest of the world.

She said the implementation of this policy is to provide quicker service to applicants.

"There are now two bank branches that accept applications. This will increase in the future and eventually people outside Accra will be able to apply in one of the regional capitals instead of travelling to Accra just to submit the application and return at another day for the interview."

She said the only document that is submitted is the application form.

Applicants show their passports just for identification purposes, but they do not submit the passport to the bank.

Mr Michael Schimmel, Head of the Consular Section, who accompanied the Ambassador, said because the appointment reservation system is fully automated, the potential for fraud is minimised.

He said the consular section would play an oversight role to ensure that attempts at fraud are minimised and called on people who are aware of specific visa fraud schemes to notify the section.

Mr Joseph Abraham, Managing Director of Stanchart, who conducted the Ambassador around, said the bank won the bid from a field of three because of its innovations and international standards.

Ms Angela Naa Sakua Sackey, Branch Sales and Service Manager, said since its inception, the branch has processed 8,000 applications.

She said 200 application fees and interview appointments are processed daily with virtually no queues in the banking hall.

The visa fee is 45 dollars, payable in the cedi equivalent.