Oct. 16, 2022 12:44 pm ET
Joe Lonsdale’s op-ed “The Other Immigration Crisis: Endless Visa Waits” (Oct. 10) raises alarms about the effect of visa-processing delays on the U.S. job market, but that’s only one example of visa delays wreaking havoc on the economy. The State Department’s visitor visa backlogs are also constricting business and leisure travel to the U.S.
The consequences are real. Would-be travelers are selecting other countries to visit. In 2023 alone, the U.S. is projected to lose 6.6 million potential visitors and $11.6 billion in lost spending as a result of likely international travelers being unable to obtain a visitor visa to travel to the U.S. in a timely manner. With a recession looming, the U.S. can’t afford to turn away billions of dollars in visitor spending. The Biden administration must give priority to this issue and get visa wait times down to 21 days.
