Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, considerable concern was raised because the 19 terrorists were aliens (i.e., noncitizens or foreign nationals) who apparently entered the United States on temporary visas. Fears that lax enforcement of immigration laws regulating the admission of foreign nationals into the United States makes the United States vulnerable to further terrorist attacks led many to call for revisions in the visa policy and changes in who administers immigration law. The report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9/11 Commission) maintained that border security was not considered a national security matter prior to September 11, and as a result the State Department's consular officers were not treated as full partners in counterterrorism efforts. The 9/11 Commission made several recommendations that underscored the urgency of implementing legislative provisions on visa policy and immigration control that Congress enacted several years ago. As these more stringent visa policies have gone into force, however, new concerns have arisen about visa processing delays. Visa applicants often face extensive wait times for interviews. Whether these delays are having a deleterious effect on travel and commerce has become an issue. Some now question whether sufficient resources and staff are in place to manage visa issuances in the post-September 11 world. Foreign nationals not already legally residing in the United States who wish to come to the United States generally must obtain a visa to be admitted. Under current law, three departments—the Department of State (DOS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ)—each play key roles in administering the law and policies on the admission of aliens. DOS's Bureau of Consular Affairs (Consular Affairs) is the agency responsible for issuing visas, DHS's Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is charged with approving immigrant petitions, and DHS's Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is tasked with inspecting all people who enter the United States. DOJ's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has a significant policy role through its adjudicatory decisions on specific immigration cases. This report opens with an overview of visa issuances, with sections on procedures for aliens coming to live in the United States permanently and on procedures for aliens admitted for temporary stays. It includes a discussion of visa screening policies, including inadmissibility, databases, an analysis of visa refusals, biometric visas and other major visa policy procedures. The final section analyzes selected issues in the 110 th Congress, notably new technologies, impact on travel and commerce, and security concerns. Summaries of key laws revising visa policy enacted in the 107 th -109 th Congresses appear in the Appendix . There are two broad classes of aliens that are issued visas: immigrants and nonimmigrants. Those for whom visas are not required, including humanitarian admissions, such as asylees, refugees, parolees and other aliens granted relief from deportation, are handled separately under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Those aliens granted asylum or refugee status ultimately are eligible to become legal permanent residents (LPRs). Illegal aliens or unauthorized aliens include those noncitizens who either entered the United States surreptitiously (i.e., entered without inspection), or who violated the terms of their visas. The documentary requirements for visas are stated in §222 of the INA, with some discretion for further specifications or exceptions by regulation as discussed below. Generally, the application requirements are more extensive for aliens who wish to permanently live in the United States than those coming for visits. The amount of paperwork required and the length of adjudication process to obtain a visa to come to the United States is analogous to that of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) tax forms and review procedures. Just as persons with uncomplicated earnings and expenses may file an IRS "short form" while those whose financial circumstances are more complex may file a series of IRS forms, so too an alien whose situation is straightforward and whose reason for seeking a visa is easily documented generally has fewer forms and procedural hurdles than an alien whose circumstances are more complex. There are over 70 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) forms as well as DOS forms that pertain to the visa issuance process. Aliens who wish to come to live permanently in the United States must meet a set of criteria specified in the INA. They must qualify as: a spouse or minor child of a U.S. citizen; a parent, adult child or sibling of an adult U.S. citizen; a spouse or minor child of a legal permanent resident; an employee that a U.S. employer has gotten approval from the Department of Labor to hire; a person of extraordinary or exceptional ability in specified areas; a refugee or asylee determined to be fleeing persecution; a winner of a visa in the diversity lottery; or a person eligible under other specialized provisions of law. Petitions for immigrant (i.e., LPR status), are first filed with USCIS by the sponsoring relative or employer in the United States. If the prospective immigrant is already residing in the United States, the USCIS handles the entire process, which is called "adjustment of status." If the prospective LPR does not have legal residence in the United States, the petition is forwarded to Consular Affairs in their home country after USCIS has reviewed it. The Consular Affairs officer (when the alien is coming from abroad) and USCIS adjudicator (when the alien is adjusting status in the United States) must be satisfied that the alien is entitled to the immigrant status. Many LPRs are adjusting status from within the United States rather than receiving visas issued abroad by Consular Affairs, as Figure 1 indicates. Although over 1 million aliens became LPRs in FY2006, only 419,000 immigrant visas were issued abroad that year. A personal interview is required for all prospective LPRs. The burden of proof is on the applicant to establish eligibility for the type of visa for which the application is made. Consular Affairs officers (when the alien is coming from abroad) and USCIS adjudicators (when the alien is adjusting status in the United States) must confirm that the alien is not ineligible for a visa under the so-called "grounds for inadmissibility" of the INA, which include criminal, terrorist, and public health grounds for exclusion discussed below. Aliens seeking to come to the United States temporarily rather than to live permanently are known as nonimmigrants. These aliens are admitted to the United States for a temporary period of time and an expressed reason. There are 24 major nonimmigrant visa categories, and 70 specific types of nonimmigrant visas are issued currently. Most of these nonimmigrant visa categories are defined in §101(a)(15) of the INA. These visa categories are commonly referred to by the letter and numeral that denotes their subsection in §101(a)(15); for example, B-2 tourists, E-2 treaty investors, F-1 foreign students, H-1B temporary professional workers, J-1 cultural exchange participants, or S-4 terrorist informants. As with immigrant visas, the burden of proof is on the applicant to establish eligibility for nonimmigrant status and the type of nonimmigrant visa for which the application is made. Nonimmigrants must demonstrate that they are coming for a limited period and for a specific purpose. Specifically §214(b) of the INA presumes that all aliens seeking admission to the United States are coming to live permanently; as a result, nonimmigrants must demonstrate that they are not coming to reside permanently. The Consular Affairs officer, at the time of application for a visa, as well as the Customs and Border Protection Bureau (CBP) inspectors, at the time of application for admission, must be satisfied that the alien is entitled to a nonimmigrant status. The law exempts only the H-1 workers, L intracompany transfers, and V family members from the requirement that they prove that they are not coming to live permanently. USCIS and CBP play a role determining eligibility for certain nonimmigrant visas, notably H workers and L intracompany transfers. Also, if a nonimmigrant in the United States wishes to change from one nonimmigrant category to another, such as from a tourist visa to a student visa, the alien files a change of status application with the USCIS. If the alien leaves the United States while the change of status is pending, the alien is presumed to have relinquished the application. Personal interviews are generally required for foreign nationals seeking nonimmigrant visas. Interviews, however, may be waived in certain cases; prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, personal interviews for applicants for B visitor visas reportedly were often waived. This waiver formed the basis for the controversial and allegedly fraud-prone "Visa Express" in Saudi Arabia (now suspended) where travel agents pre-screened visa applicants and submitted petitions on behalf of the aliens. After September 11, 2001, the number of personal interviews rose significantly as part of broader efforts to meet national security goals. DOS issued interim regulations on July 7, 2003, that officially tightened up the requirements for personal interviews and substantially narrowed the class of nonimmigrants eligible for the waiver of a personal interview. Prior to implementation of P.L. 108-458 , personal interview waivers might have been granted only to children under age 16, persons 60 years or older, diplomats and representatives of international organizations, aliens who were renewing a visa they obtained within the prior 12 months, and individual cases for whom a waiver was warranted for national security or unusual circumstances. Nonimmigrant visas issued abroad dipped to 4.9 million in FY2003 after peaking at 7.6 million in FY2001. The FY2005 data indicated 5.4 million nonimmigrant visas were issued.