Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BANDARSERIBEGAWAN122
2009-06-03 00:58:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Bandar Seri Begawan
Cable title:  

COUNTRY FRAUD SUMMARY -- BRUNEI

Tags:  KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC SN 
pdf how-to read a cable
R 030058Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 4533
NVC PORTSMOUTH 0039
INFO AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR 
AMCONSUL MUMBAI
AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 
AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 
AIT TAIPEI 0141
AMCONSUL HONG KONG 
AMEMBASSY BEIJING 
AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 
AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 
AMCONSUL SHENYANG 
AMCONSUL CHENGDU 
AMEMBASSY TOKYO 
AMEMBASSY MANILA 
AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 
USCBP WASHINGTON DC
HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC
UNCLAS BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000122 


DEPT FOR CA/FPP
DEPT ALSO PASS TO KCC
POSTS FOR FRAUD PREVENTION MANAGERS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC SN
SUBJECT: COUNTRY FRAUD SUMMARY -- BRUNEI

UNCLAS BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000122


DEPT FOR CA/FPP
DEPT ALSO PASS TO KCC
POSTS FOR FRAUD PREVENTION MANAGERS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC SN
SUBJECT: COUNTRY FRAUD SUMMARY -- BRUNEI


1. Summary: Brunei has been a member of the Visa Waiver Program
since its inception. On May 5, the Government of Brunei announced
the production and issuance of fully ICAO compliant biometric
passports. Prior to this announcement, the Government of Brunei had
been issuing regular passports (red cover) to Brunei citizens and
official and diplomatic passports (black cover) to government
officials to support their official travel. These passports are high
quality and contain a digitized photo, machine readable zone and a
security laminate on the data page. Citizens who wish to travel to
the United States whose passports were issued on or after October
26, 2006 must obtain a visa to travel. Annual visa workload for FY
08 was 696 applications with an adjusted refusal rate of 11.78
percent (11.78%). Workload has shown a steady increase in the
current fiscal year, primarily due to the gap in issuing biometric
passports that would allow visa waiver travel and also to an
increase in commercial, business, and government linkages with the
United States. Trade with the United States has increased at a
steady rate for the past several years, but almost tripled in 2007
due to a major sale of aircraft to the main oil and gas producing
company. Students in the U.S. have surpassed pre-9/11 levels from a
low of only 12 students just three years ago to a current 54
students actively studying in the U.S. according to SEVIS data. Post
expects continued growth of Brunei citizens studying in the U.S.
with the opening of government scholarships for undergraduate study
and the renewal of programs for government-funded, mid-career
masters-level study which had fallen off in the late 1990s. End
Summary.

--------------
COUNTRY CONDITIONS
--------------


2. Brunei depends on large numbers of foreign guest workers from
its neighbors, particularly Malaysia, Indonesia, and the
Philippines. There are two very distinct categories of foreign
workers: low skilled manual laborers, domestics or low skilled
office and shop workers - mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Bangladesh, and Thailand; and management and highly
skilled technical workers in every industry but with the largest
concentrations in the IT and oil and gas industries. There is also a

sizable population of third country national engineers and other
professionals from oil-rich countries such as Nigeria and Venezuela.
Many of the latter apply for visas either to conduct business or
training in the United States or to transit on their way to
Venezuela and other destinations.


3. Brunei prohibits permanent immigration for manual and
low-skilled workers, many of whom live in Brunei for decades on work
permits. Even more highly-skilled individuals find it difficult to
meet Brunei's tough standards to qualify for permanent residence - a
minimum of 15 years residency and strong Malay language skills.
Citizenship is even more tightly controlled, requiring an additional
15 years residency after obtaining permanent resident status.
General ideological and cultural preferences for ethnic Malays and
adherents to Islam means in practice that non-Muslims may have a
more difficult time obtaining either permanent residency or
citizenship. Generations of long-term residents, particularly ethnic
Chinese, have made Brunei their home without access to the rights of
citizenship. In many cases, these individuals give birth to children
in Brunei but are unable to meet transmission requirements to pass
any citizenship to their children. Brunei thus has a very large
community of "stateless" permanent residents who do not have access
to any country's citizenship either through their parents or through
their birth in Brunei. Brunei issues these individuals "Certificate
of Identity" and accords them permanent resident status. Post
routinely issues non-immigrant visas (NIVs) to this category of
de-facto Bruneians who, despite their lack of citizenship, have
strong family and economic ties.


4. The range of nationalities and skills sets in Brunei is
reflected in post's non-immigrant visa applicant pool. In FY 2008,
sixty five percent (65%) of our NIV applicants were third country
nationals (TCNs) holding citizenship in 32 countries. Bruneian
applicants accounted for approximately one third, with Malaysia at
seventeen percent (17%) and the Philippines at fifteen (15%).
Philippine applicants accounted for nearly all visas refused.


5. Visa applications from TCNs are likely to increase at a modest
rate, due to a growing multinational corporate presence; successes
in the Embassy's outreach program to increase international
academic, research, and cultural exchanges; a steady stream of TCN
residents; and robust annual growth in trade with the United States.


6. While in general Brunei is a low-fraud environment, the range of
nationalities as well as the small volume of applications presents a
challenge for post to remain vigilant against fraudsters and visa
shoppers from the region and to remain current on the ever-morphing
methods of fraud that develop world-wide.

--------------
NIV FRAUD
--------------


7. Post's vulnerability to fraud is at the individual cse level,
not on an organized basis. The most liely candidates to engage in
individual fraud are ork pass holders from the Philippines who are
woking in low-level office jobs and being paid a lowwage (albeit
higher than they would receive in te Philippines). 214(b) refusal
rate tends to be igh for this category of applicant and, thus, Post
is vigilant for the possibility of fraud. That sad, the most common
proble among these applicants is not outright fraud but occasional
"inflation" of credentials through the use of loaned funds to
bolster bank accounts, exaggerated claims of employment status or
responsibility, or the provision of incomplete information about
family members in the United States. This type of credential
inflation is conducted at the individual case level; Post has not
detected any pattern to suggest any organized third party provision
of false documents.


8. Another potential fraud area is for applicants in categories
known to be high-fraud (H1B) that don't require residence abroad.
These applicants target Bandar Seri Begawan as an "easy mark";
however, Posts works closely with consular officers in the
applicants' country of nationality to ensure that visa shoppers do
not subvert the integrity of the visa process. To address
vulnerability to fraud all NIV issuances are reviewed by Manila
Fraud Prevention Unit.

--------------
IV FRAUD
--------------


9. Embassy Bandar Seri Begawan does not process immigrant visas,
but does provide information and accept I-130 petitions from
resident Americans. These petitions are forwarded to the Embassy in
Singapore or in Kuala Lumpur for adjudication. Usually petitioners
are long-term residents of Brunei known to Post and relationships
appear to be genuine.

--------------
DV FRAUD
--------------


10. Embassy Bandar Seri Begawan does not process diversity visas
but occasionally provides basic information on this visa category.

--------------
ACS AND PASSPORT FRAUD
--------------


11. Post has not detected any fraud. In one instance, one American
citizen provided insufficient evidence to allow for single-parent
signature on a passport application of a minor child in a possible
attempt to mislead the consular officer about his custodial rights.
However, there was no outright fraud involved.

--------------
ADOPTION FRAUD
--------------


12. Post has not processed any adoption.

--------------
USE OF DNA TESTING
--------------


13. Post has referred only one case for DNA testing in support of a
citizenship claim. The DNA result was positive and no fraud was
uncovered.

--------------
ASYLUM AND OTHER DHS BENEFIT FRAUD
--------------


14. Post has had no applications for asylum and has received no
inquiries/requests from U.S. legal permanent residents or other
applications for DHS benefits.

--------------
ALIEN SMUGGLING, TRAFFICKING, ORGANIZED CRIME, TERRORIST TRAVEL
--------------


15. Post has received occasional reports of mala fide travelers
interdicted around the world attempting to use altered Bruneian
passports for VWP travel to the United States. However, Post is
unaware of any significant trends or high numbers of misuse of the
Bruneian passport. Embassy Bandar Seri Begawan has been discussing
with the Brunei Government to implement a biometric passport
program.


16. Three known cases last year highlighted that alien smugglers
and/or human traffickers exploited some of Brunei's more vulnerable
land border checkpoints and used Brunei as a transit point. None of
the cases involved trafficking to the United States, but two did
involve the apparent trafficking of young women (to Australia and to
London) and two American citizens who traveled on the same routes
were identified as potential facilitators. There is no indication
that there was any nexus to terrorism.

--------------
DS CRIMINAL FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS
--------------


17. There have been no DS criminal fraud investigations in Brunei
involving consular matters.

--------------
HOST COUNTRY PASSPORT, IDENTITY DOCUMENTS, AND CIVIL REGISTRY
--------------


18. All residents carry some type of identification card. Citizens
carry a national identification card (yellow),issued at age 12;
permanent resident cards are pink and work permit cards are green.
All identity cards are of high quality and include machine readable
zones, digitized photos, and some security features such as
holograms. National identification cards also contain an encrypted
chip which, in the future, will serve as a public key for bearers to
gain access to banking and other services. Post has not detected any
apparent fraud in identification cards, but would approach the host
country to confirm a document if a suspicion arose. Post understands
that the Government of Brunei collects two thumb prints from all
identity document applicants and stores the prints in a national
database.

--------------
COOPERATION WITH HOST GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES
--------------


19. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Forensics Documents
Lab, in coordination with the Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF)
West, provided document screening training last year for officers
from Brunei's immigration, police, and customs organizations. The
training was well-received and Brunei has expressed interest in
additional training. Post is working with ICE for further training
should funding become available. Note:Royal Brunei Airlines staff,
but not Immigration officials, detected malaise travelers with
fraudulent Malaysian passports in a possible person-smuggling ring
that appeared to have exploited a weakness at a remote land border
crossing point to facilitate travel to third countries.

20. Brunei is considering signing an agreement with the United
States to exchange unclassified information on known and suspected
terrorists under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-6. Brunei
shares lost and stolen passport information with Interpol but does
not share this data directly with the United States. Law enforcement
cooperation with the United States is good, but typically
incident-based and not proactive. Brunei's law enforcement
capabilities are professionally sound, but uneven, and tend to be
deployed only after a crime is detected. However, the Internal
Security Department and religious authorities maintain a close watch
on religious groups and Brunei's very limited political activity to
head off any potential challenges to the authority of the royal
family or the government. The Immigration Department vigorously and
proactively enforces immigration law, frequently screening the
foreign worker population for overstays and persons working without
a work-permit. Post's RSO has worked closely with non-resident USG
law enforcement attaches (FBI, DEA, and DHS) to build stronger
relationships with host country law enforcement.

--------------
STAFFING AND TRAINING
--------------


28. Post fraud prevention staff consists of a Foreign Service
Officer who serves as a part-time Fraud Prevention Manager; a
Consular Assistant who acts part-time as Fraud Prevention Unit;
Attended the Fraud Prevention Workshop - PC542- last March 9-13,
2009; also cross-trained to work on fraud issues; and taken the
on-line training in detecting imposters through facial recognition.

TODD