Applying in Chennai: No English? No problem.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENNAI 000174 CA/FPP FOR JILL NYSTROM DS/CR/CFI FOR DAVID BRACKINS DS/CR/OCI FOR GALEN NACE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KFRD CVIS CMGT ASEC IN SUBJECT: Applying in Chennai: No English? No problem. Ref: A) Chennai 77, B) Chennai 13, C) New Delhi 638, D) 08 Kolkata 89 CHENNAI 00000174 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. Summary. Consulate Chennai conducted a validation study for the first three months of calendar year 2008 of its non-English speaking B1/B2 applicants and found the visa holders had a 97.6 percent compliance rate. Post adjudicated approximately 84,000 visas during this time, including 11,253 non-English speaking interviews (13.4 percent of Post total) in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu and Kannada. The study randomly reviewed 1,589 of the 8,749 visas issued during the study period. The issuance rate is only seven percent lower than the Post average, and non-English speakers tend to have less education, less money, and more incentive to work illegally in the United States, suggesting Post's adjudications were on target. End Summary. -------------- Background & Methodology -------------- ¶2. English is widely spoken in South India as a second language. English is the official subsidiary language of India with Hindi being the official language. However, many people in South India do not speak Hindi but opt for English as a medium of conversation between people from different provinces. ¶3. Due in large part to the high prevalence of English speakers and preference to study science at the high school and university level, Consulate Chennai adjudicates more H-1B skilled worker visas than any other post. India is also currently second in the world in sending F-1 college students to the U.S. with over 90,000 Indian students currently in F-1 status. This large number of people living long-term in the U.S. also fuels much of the demand for B1/B2 visa applicants as family members, usually parents, in India apply to visit them. ¶4. The visa applicants who do not speak English, referred to at Post as "language applicants," tend to be people from rural areas with less education and lower income compared against people who do speak English. They would appear to have the most to gain by migrating to the United States illegally. ¶5. Consulate Chennai offers applicants the option to book their visa interviews in either English or one of the other six predominant languages spoken in South India. The languages are Tamil (spoken by 
people in Tamil Nadu province),Malayalam (Kerala),Kannada (Karnataka),Telugu (Andhra Pradesh),and Hindi and Urdu (Muslims in Andhra Pradesh). ¶6. Post looked at the people who booked a non-English appointment from 1-JAN-2008 to 31-MAR-2008 and were issued a visa. Post issued a total of 8,749 visas to language applicants during this time. Post randomly selected approximately 15 percent of each of the six different languages spoken, unless the sample size was too small, as in the case of Hindi and Urdu, for which all cases were examined. The applicants were sorted by language, and Post sent the list to USVISIT to conduct Arrival/Departure Information System (ADIS) checks on the travelers. If ADIS showed that the individual was still in the U.S. illegally, Post called the applicant's home in India to check if the ADIS findings were correct. -------------- Findings -------------- ¶7. Post's overall issuance rate for the study period was 84.9 percent. For language interviews, the issuance rate drops to 77.8 percent. This data, along with the 97.6 percent compliance rate of issued cases, suggests that officers had a high degree of accuracy in their adjudications. The language applicants currently in the U.S. illegally are mostly parents who said they were visiting their children on work visas in the United States. -------------- Telugu -------------- ¶8. Telugu-speaking applicants, mostly people from Andhra Pradesh, constituted a large percentage of Post's applicant pool prior to the start-up of Consulate General Hyderabad in March 2009. During the study period, they applied for more visas than the other five language applicants combined. Andhra Pradesh, and specifically Hyderabad, has long been a source of fraudulent documents for all of India (ref A). This is due in part to the large Telugu diaspora in the U.S. and the mobile nature of people from Andhra Pradesh. This CHENNAI 00000174 002.2 OF 003 would explain why Post had an issuance rate of 75.8 percent for Telugu interviews which is lower than the Post average of 84.9 percent. Post looked at 817 randomly selected applicants out of 4,652 Telugu language applicants issued a visa. Of those, only 14 accrued any illegal presence (98.3 percent compliance rate). However, another 30 individuals went to the U.S. and filed for an extension to remain more than 6 months, though they were legally present. ¶9. The issued Telugu applicants were by far most likely to be parents of H-1B visa holders visiting their children. The refused applicants were often other relatives such as aunts, uncles, and cousins going to visit family members. Many times these people were using fraudulent documents in order to establish a relationship. Illegal document vendors often use a distant relationship as it still provides the mala fide applicant with a purpose and support for the visit. This provides an excuse for not being able to trace the applicant's name back to the person in the United States. ¶10. The Telugus who are illegally present in the U.S. are all parents of individuals legally in the U.S., whether a legal permanent resident (LPR) or H-1B holder. However, Post has discovered during FPU interviews that another common fraud trend is for older applicants (approximately 45-55) to purchase fake documents claiming to visit their child in the U.S. when their true intent is to work illegally. Post has also uncovered two recent instances where applicants have obtained an Indian passport in a false identity and birth date, sometimes decades earlier, attempting to pass themselves off as parents visiting their children. -------------- Tamil -------------- ¶11. Tamil is an official language of Tamil Nadu, where Chennai is located, and the second largest language applicant group Post interviewed during the study period. Most applicants from Chennai, though, speak English well enough to conduct a visa interview. The vast majority of the Tamil language applicants are from rural Tamil Nadu, make their living from agriculture, and rarely have beyond a tenth grade education. As in other provinces in South India, the Tamil-speaking applicants often are parents of H-1B holders going to visit their child. The issuance rate for Tamil-speaking applicants was 82.2 percent during the study period. Post looked at 354 out of 1,952 issued applicants randomly selected during the study period and found that only 5 people (98.6 compliance rate) accrued any illegal presence. Four of the five who are in the U.S. illegally were retired parents going to visit their child who was on an H-1B visa. The other individual illegally present was a medical attendant accompanying his patient in the United States. -------------- Malayalam -------------- ¶12. Malayalam is spoken almost exclusively in the Kerala province. Kerala is famous throughout India for the number of nurses it produces. Post processes many E-3 immigrant visas for nurses from Kerala. Most of the NIV visas issued are for parents going to visit these LPR nurses (ref B). For thousands of years, Kerala has been a major trading hub for South India. This exposure to outsiders may account for Malayalam-speakers' proclivity for emigration to work and then retire in Kerala. Many of the Gulf states employ Malayalam laborers. Post also sees more applicants for immigrant visas than for H-1Bs as the travelers from Kerala tend to be manual laborers rather than engineers. Therefore, the NIV applicant pool differs from the rest of South India, where parents are going to visit their children who are engineers or computer programmers. Malayalam language applicants tend to be parents of nurses, for whom Post has historically seen high compliance rate. Post has seen lower compliance rates among Malayalam NIV applicants for younger people visiting family and Christian priests (and those claiming to be priests) ministering to the large Malayali Christian population. ¶13. The overall issuance rate for Malayalam-speaking applicants during the study was 71.3 percent. Post randomly chose 289 out of 1,270 issuances during the study period and found that eight individuals (97.2 percent compliance rate) accumulated illegal presence. Seven out of the eight applicants who over overstayed were parents of legal LPR holders visiting their children. In all instances, the case notes indicated the individuals had children and owned a home in India. Having more overstays from parents is likely because parents are issued visas far more frequently than other language applicants who are often refused 214b. CHENNAI 00000174 003.2 OF 003 -------------- Hindi and Urdu -------------- ¶14. Native Hindi and Urdu speakers in South India are limited to Muslims from Hyderabad and are also a high fraud category. Muslims from other South Indian provinces would be more likely to speak the language native to the province, i.e. Tamil, Malayalam, or Kannada. As noted in para 8, Hyderabad is a hub for fraud. Furthermore, Hindi and Urdu language applicants rarely are parents going to visit their H-1B children. They tend to be small business owners going to visit a cousin or take an expensive package tour, or newlyweds taking a tourist trip that will cost two years of salary. This accounts for a low issuance rate of 32.1 percent during the study period. Delhi conducted a validation study of its Hindi speakers (ref C) and found similarly lower issuance and compliance rate and higher fraud rates than the general applicant pool. ¶15. Post reviewed 47 of the 208 Hindi visas issued during the study period. Post found that 2 people (95.7 percent compliance) were illegally in the U.S. Both of those unrelated overstays claimed to be visiting an LPR brothers who was a doctor. Another individual was turned around by Customs and Border Patrol and had his visa revoked 6c1 for material misrepresentation. ¶16. Post had a small sampling of Urdu applicants, so all 82 visas issued during the study period were reviewed. Seven of these individuals were reported as overstays (91.5 percent compliance). Five of those overstays were a young couple with their three small children visiting an LPR brother who was a doctor. Post investigated the three overstays visiting LPR brothers who were doctors but discovered no other commonalities. Another woman claimed to be visiting her L2, intra-company transfer dependent daughter. The final overstaying applicant was a female poultry farm owner visiting a cousin. -------------- Kannada -------------- ¶17. Kannada is one of the official languages of Karnataka, where Bangalore is the major city and makes up the smallest pool of language applicants. Most Kannada speakers, however, do not come from Bangalore but the rural villages. Kannada applicants typically perpetrate less fraud, are better off financially, and therefore seem to have stronger ties to India. The 84.7 percent issuance rate for Kannada interviewees almost matches the issuance rate for the general applicant pool. Post randomly reviewed 100 of the 592 applicants issued during the study period, and only four accrued any illegal presence. All of the individuals with illegal presence were over 55 years old and visiting family. -------------- Conclusion -------------- ¶18. Consulate Chennai's language applicants issued visas are largely compliant. This seems due to the large number of parents visiting their H-1B, H4, or LPR children. Other posts, such as Kolkata, have studied applicants over 55 years of age (ref D) and found them to have high compliance rates. The older applicants who do not speak English and claim to be parents of children legally in the U.S. appear to have the same high compliance rate. Younger language applicants seem to be rightly refused as they tend to have weaker ties to India and are more likely to benefit from illegal immigration. Language applicants visiting siblings or cousins have been a cause for concern, especially from Hindi and Urdu speakers. KAPLAN