Visa applicants, including science students and scholars, generally begin the visa process by scheduling an interview at a consular post. On the day of the appointment, a consular officer reviews the application, interviews the applicant, and checks the applicant’s name in the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS). The consular officer then decides if the applicant will need a Security Advisory Opinion, which provides an opinion or clearance from Washington on whether to issue a visa to the applicant and may include a Visas Mantis check. In deciding if a Visas Mantis check is needed, the consular officer determines whether the applicant’s background or proposed activity in the United States could involve exposure to technologies on the Technology Alert List, which lists science and technology-related fields where, if knowledge gained from work in these fields were used against the United States, it could be potentially harmful. After a consular officer decides that a Visas Mantis security check is necessary for an applicant, several steps are taken to resolve the process. The consular officer prepares a Visas Mantis cable, which contains information on the applicant, and then transmits the information to Washington for an interagency security check. The State Department’s Bureau of Nonproliferation, the FBI, and other agencies review the information contained in the cable and then provide a response on the applicant to the Consular Affairs section of State headquarters. The Bureau of Nonproliferation and other agencies are given 15 working days to respond to State with any objections. However, State has agreed to wait for a response from the FBI before proceeding with each Visas Mantis case. Once State headquarters receives all the information pertaining to an applicant, Consular Affairs summarizes the information and transmits a response to the consular post. A consular official at post reviews the response and decides, based on the information from Washington, whether to issue the visa to the applicant. State cannot readily identify the total length of time it takes for a science student or scholar to obtain a visa. However, in discussions with State officials, we learned that a key factor that contributes to the length of time is whether an applicant must undergo a Visas Mantis. To obtain visa data on science students and scholars, and to determine how long the visa process takes, we reviewed all Visas Mantis cables received from posts between April and June 2003, which totaled approximately 5,000. Of these cases, 2,888 pertained to science students and scholars, of which approximately 58 percent were sent from China, about 20 percent from Russia, and less than 2 percent from India. We drew a random sample of 71 cases from the 2,888 science student and scholar visa applications to measure the length of time taken at various points in the visa process. The sample of 71 cases is a probability sample, and results from the data in this sample project to the universe of the 2,888 science visa applications. We found that visas for science students and scholars took on average 67 days from the date the Visas Mantis cable was submitted from post to the date State sent a response to the post. This is slightly longer than 2 months per application, on average. In the sample, 67 of the visa applications completed processing and approval by December 3, 2003. In addition, 3 of the 67 completed applications had processing times in excess of 180 days. Four of the cases in our sample of 71 remained pending as of December 3, 2003. Of the 4 cases pending, 3 had been pending for more than 150 days and 1 for more than 240 days. In addition to our sample of 71 cases, State provided us with data on two samples it had taken of Visas Mantis case processing times. Data on the first sample included 40 visa cases taken from August to October 2003; data on the second sample included 50 Visas Mantis cases taken from November and December 2003. State indicated that both samples show improvements in processing times compared with earlier periods in 2003. However, based on the documentation of how these cases were selected, we were unable to determine whether these were scientifically valid samples and therefore we could not validate that processing times have improved. For the first sample, the data show that 58 percent of the cases were completed within 30 days; for the second sample, the data show that 52 percent were completed within this time frame. In addition, the data for both samples show that lengthy waits remain in some cases. For example, 9 of the 40 cases had been outstanding for more than 60 days as of December 3, 2003, including 3 cases that had been pending for more than 120 days. Also, 9 of the 50 cases were still pending as of February 13, 2004, including 6 that had been outstanding for more than 60 days. State officials commented that most of the outstanding cases from both samples were still being reviewed by the agencies. During our fieldwork at posts in China, India, and Russia in September 2003, we also obtained data indicating that 410 Visas Mantis cases submitted in fiscal year 2003 were still outstanding more than 60 days at the end of the fiscal year. In addition, we found numerous cases— involving 27 students and scholars from Shanghai—that were pending more than 120 days as of October 16, 2003. We found that several factors, including interoperability problems among the systems that State and FBI use, contribute to the time it takes to process a Visas Mantis case. Because many different agencies, bureaus, posts, and field offices are involved in processing Visas Mantis security checks, and each has different databases and systems, we found that Visas Mantis cases can get delayed or lost at different points in the process. We found that in fiscal year 2003, some Visas Mantis cases did not always reach their intended recipient and as a result, some of the security checks were delayed. For example, we followed up with the FBI on 14 outstanding cases from some of the posts we visited in China in September 2003 to see if it had received and processed the cases. FBI officials provided information indicating that they had no record of receiving three of the cases, they had responded to State on eight cases, and they were still reviewing three cases. FBI officials stated that the most likely reason why they did not have a record of the three cases from State were due to cable formatting errors. State did not comment on the status of the 14 cases we provided to the FBI for review. However, a Consular Affairs official told us that in fall 2003, there were about 700 Visas Mantis cases sent from Beijing that did not reach the FBI for the security check. The official did not know how the cases got lost but told us that it took Consular Affairs about a month to identify this problem and provide the FBI with the cases. As a result, several hundred visa applications were delayed for another month. Figure 1 illustrates some of the time-consuming factors in the Visas Mantis process for our sample of 71 cases. While the FBI received most of the cases from State within a day, seven cases took a month or more, most likely because they had been improperly formatted and thus were rejected by the FBI’s system. In more than half of the cases, the FBI was able to complete the clearance process the same day, but some cases took more than 100 days. These cases may have taken longer because (1) the FBI had to investigate the case or request additional information from State; (2) the FBI had to locate files in field offices, because not all of its files are an electronic format; or (3) the case was a duplicate, which the FBI’s name check system also rejects. In most of the cases, the FBI was able to send a response—which it generally does in batches of name checks, not by individual case—to State within a week. The FBI provides the results of name checks for Visas Mantis cases to State on computer compact disks (CDs), a step that could cause delays. In December 2003, a FBI official told us that these CDs were provided to State twice a week. However, in the past, the CDs were provided to State on a less frequent basis. In addition, it takes time for data to be entered in State’s systems once State receives the information. In the majority of our sample cases, it took State 2 weeks or longer to inform a post that it could issue a visa. State officials were unable to explain why it took State this long to respond to post. Officials told us that the time frame could be due to a lack of resources at headquarters or because State was waiting for a response from agencies other than the FBI. However, the data show that only 5 of the 71 cases were pending information from agencies other than the FBI. During our visits to posts in September 2003, officials told us they were unsure whether they were adding to the wait time because they did not have clear guidance on when to apply the Visas Mantis process and were not receiving feedback on the amount of information they provided in their Visas Mantis requests. According to the officials, additional information and feedback from Washington agencies regarding these issues could help expedite Visas Mantis cases. Consular officers told us that they would like the guidance to be simplified—for example, by expressing some scientific terms in more easily understood language. Several consular officers also told us they had only a limited understanding of the Visas Mantis process, including how long the process takes. They told us they would like to have better information on how long a Visas Mantis check is taking so that they can more accurately inform the applicant of the expected wait. Consular officers at most of the posts we visited told us they would like more feedback from State on whether the Visas Mantis cases they are sending to Washington are appropriate, particularly whether they are sending too many or too few Visas Mantis requests. They said they would like to know if including more information in the security check request would reduce the time to process an application in Washington.