MISSION EFFORTS TO ENCOURAGE GREATER OMANI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MUSCAT 000437

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR CA/VO/F/P LSANTA, CA/P KCABRAL, NEA/PPD DBENZE,
NEA/ARP BMASILKO

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KPAO PGOV MU CVIS
SUBJECT: MISSION EFFORTS TO ENCOURAGE GREATER OMANI
TRAVEL/STUDY IN THE U.S. SHOWING RESULTS

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SUMMARY
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1. Over the past two years, Embassy Muscat's Public Affairs
and Consular Sections, with strong and consistent Front Office
guidance and broader Mission support, have collaborated on a
range of efforts aimed at demystifying the consular process,
dispelling myths about U.S. visas, and reducing still-
substantial concerns among the Omani public about travel to
the United States. A prime focus of this work has been
student visas, but across the board there are clear signs that
our work is now bearing fruit. END SUMMARY.

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STARTING FROM SCRATCH
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2. As with the rest of the region, Omani attitudes toward
U.S. travel changed dramatically in the wake of 9/11 and the
subsequent necessary consular and security innovations.
Beginning in 2006, we identified this lingering concern, much
of it based on dated information and negative coverage in
regional media, as an area of special concern. Study in the
U.S. had been especially badly affected, with the number of
Omanis seeking F Visas dropping by two-thirds between 2000 and

2003. In the words of one poster on a popular online forum in
mid-2004, "Why should we go somewhere we are not wanted? It's
their own fault that so many foreigners are going to other
places to study!" In conversations, both formal and informal,
with Omani contacts at all levels, any discussion of U.S.
travel quickly turned to concerns about obtaining visas - with
most considering the process opaque, daunting, and likely to
be unsuccessful - and about the travel process itself, with
strong anxiety commonly expressed about how travelers are
treated at points of entry. We resolved to address these
issues, targeting both Omanis and the third-country nationals
who make up a significant portion (52% in 2007) of our
consular customers.


3. Messaging of any kind in Oman presents special challenges:
the media is extremely limited, both in scale and in capacity.
As a result, we decided to combine media, programming, and
directly consular strategies, with specific areas targeted for
special attention:

- Virtually every public appearance by the Ambassador, DCM, or
other Embassy officer includes at least a mention of consular
"good news," whether it is the priority given to student-visa
applications, the extremely low overall refusal rate for visas
(that Oman is on par with Lichtenstein in this regard has been
an especially effective talking point),or the very few
incidents of difficulty on arrival reported by Omani
travelers.

- At least once a year we have held large-scale media outreach
targeted specifically at consular issues, whether a full-scale
press conference to address enhancements such as the
appointment system introduced in 2007 or, as in 2008, an
exclusive to one journalist that resulted in a three-page
feature in a widely read weekly that successfully highlighted
how "fast and easy" (in the words of one applicant) the U.S.
visa process is.

- Regular promotion of the advantages of study in the U.S. for
Omani and third-country students alike. The Ambassador has
focused on this message on every interaction he has had with
youth over the past two years, and we have worked closely with
U.S. NGO AMIDEAST as it established an Oman country office and
took over the Educational Advising program for the Sultanate.
Highlights of these efforts include: theming the Embassy's
2006 National Day reception to celebrate U.S. education;
ensuring a U.S. presence at local education fairs and
exhibition; cooperating with visiting groups to hold our own
college/university fairs; presenting digital video conferences
with U.S. colleges and regular presentations at our six
American Corners; offering pre-departure briefings to Omani
government scholarship students prior to their travel to the
U.S. on the do's and don't's of entering and studying in the
U.S.; and hosting an April 2008 press/public event, the
EducationUSA Showcase, which was essentially a catalogue show
for over 120 U.S. colleges and universities.

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STUDENT-FOCUSED VISA POLICIES
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4. In addition to outreach efforts, Post has instituted
policies to make the student-visa application process as

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painless as possible. In October 2007, Post instituted its
first-ever appointment system for non-immigrant visa
applicants. Previously, visa interviews were held on a first-
come, first-serve basis. In order to help students avoid
difficulties arising from late applications, Post has a
blanket policy to grant F-1 applicants expedited appointments
at any time. This policy has allowed several students who
would not otherwise have been able to do so to schedule their
visa interview early enough to arrive in the United States in
time for their studies.


5. Post also regularly advocates on behalf of student visa
applicants who are required to undergo Security Advisory
Opinions. Through close cooperation with CA/VO/L/C, SAO
processing rarely impacts a studentQs ability to begin his/her
program of study.

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CHANGING PERCEPTIONS, IMPROVING THE NUMBERS
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6. There are solid signs, evident both from discussion with
contacts and in looking at consular statistics, that this
steady drumbeat is having positive effects. In pre-departure
orientations and other programming for Omani travelers, the
overall level of anxiety about U.S. travel is markedly lower,
despite occasional negative stories about travelers'
experiences that continue to appear in regional media.
Interest in education in the U.S. appears to be reviving. For
example, Oman's premier institution, Sultan Qaboos University,
this spring requested presentations on U.S. educational
opportunities for its scholarship recipients for the first
time in four years. Interest in exchange programs is
remarkably strong, with applications for the new NESA UGRAD
college/university exchange program far exceeding both Post's
and our Omani contacts' expectations. Audiences for public
programming on education are strong, with over 700 attending a
fall 2007 college/university fair and over 200 attending the
April 2008 catalogue show. Certainly, the lengthy, detailed,
and strongly positive feature that we were able to place in
Muscat's weekly "Hi!" magazine would have been unimaginable in

2006.


7. Most dramatic, however, are the numbers. 28 Omani
citizens applied for F-1 student visas in the first five
months of 2008. This represents a 25% increase over the same
time period in 2007, and is the highest number since 2002.
While rising tuition and more rigorous standards for admission
will likely prevent the total number of Omanis issued an F
visa from topping 2001's 338 for the foreseeable future, Post
believes that our efforts have reversed the negative trend
seen since 2002, one that threatened to significantly reduce
the influence of American higher education (and therefore the
U.S. more generally) on the next generation of Oman's best and
brightest.


8. This increase in student visa numbers is not occurring in
a vacuum. Many of postQs efforts to encourage study in the
United States have had the ancillary effect of encouraging
other travel to the U.S. as well. Post issued more non-
immigrant visas of all kinds during the first five months of
2008 than in any year since 2001. The total number of visas
issued during this period in 2008 is nearly 90% of the numbers
for the same (pre-9/11) period in 2001, and more than twice
the number issued at Post's lowest point, in 2003. In short,
after seven years and a great deal of concentrated, consistent
outreach, Omani travel to the U.S. is on the brink of
returning to pre-9/11 levels.

GRAPPO