12. American CitizensSupport U.S. citizens abroad and those concerned about them in the United States The tragic attacks of September 11, 2001, and the ensuing worldwide campaign against terrorism demonstrated the critical importance of the Department抯 core mission to protect American citizens abroad. The Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) provided immediate and continuing assistance to New York City officials dealing with the cases of foreigners killed in the World Trade Center. CA also staffed several Department task forces with personnel trained in crisis management to deal with issues affecting overseas Americans. CA also coordinated with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other relevant agencies to ensure that Americans abroad were kept apprised of the anthrax threat. Throughout the year, the Department continued its efforts to keep Americans apprised of information that may affect their safety and security overseas. Civil unrest in Indonesia, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and Macedonia; terrorist threats to U.S. citizens and interests throughout the world; violent demonstrations at international conferences in Canada, Italy, and elsewhere; kidnappings in Colombia and the Philippines; earthquakes and hurricanes; as well as the aftermath of the horrific September 11 events kept us extremely busy. Our efforts were devoted in large part to ensuring that our posts' warden systems were up-to-date, that accurate information was available, consistent with U.S. Government domestic information and conveyed to the American public overseas in a factual but nonalarmist manner. Our Consular Information Program continues to be instrumental in providing Americans worldwide with information concerning upcoming events and potential threats to their safety. It is also a tool by which the Department can dispel rumors and evoke a measured, informed response by the public. With access to technology becoming more prevalent and due to significant outreach efforts by the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA), we have seen a steady increase in the number of visits to the consular Web site (travel.state.gov). The Web site received 117.9 million hits, 30.7 million more than in FY �. The average day in FY � saw over 324,000 hits as opposed to 240,000 in FY �. The daily level of hits, which reached as high as 653,550 in January, declined after February as interest in international travel lessened due to the economic downturn, but climbed again after September 11, as concern about safety abroad rose. The site received 3 million hits in the week after September 11, compared to 1.5 million in the preceding 7days. Ninety percent of users surveyed found the Web site helpful. In January, a new and improved version of the Passport Acceptance Facility Database became available to our on-line customers. The database's search engine allows customers to locate the nearest passport acceptance facility within seconds of entering a ZIP Code. Thanks to the efforts of Passport staff, major U.S. airlines and numerous on‑line travel industry resources added Internet "hotlinks" from their Web sites to travel.state.gov. We added a "Travel Agent Information" section to the Web site, enhancing communication to the people who are often the most direct link to our customers. These efforts contributed to a 90 percent increase in monthly "hits" on the Passport Services home page. Visitors to the Web site can register to receive updated passport information, such as changes in application requirements or fees, by e-mail. We also added a section on the new V and K visas. We issued a Request for Proposal to establish a Consular Contact Center to handle citizens� services, passport, and visa public information programs. The contact center will serve as an adjunct to our Web site in our effort to respond efficiently to public inquiries. By diverting the routine inquiries that represent the bulk of the telephone calls received by consular officers in the United States and abroad, it will give case officers more time to dedicate to individual cases that require an officer's attention. CA drafted scripts for contact center operators and posted them on Intranet, where posts were urged to review them and supplement them with post-specific information. In March, CA launched an expanded series of regional meetings with stakeholder groups to inform them about consular services available to the traveling public, to share information designed to keep Americans safe abroad, and to answer their questions about passports, visas, and assistance to Americans abroad. We held the first regional briefings in the fall. We organized 69 briefings for congressional staff, international student program directors, students, business and community leaders, travel agents, medical assistance companies, immigration officials, police officers, and parents whose children have been taken abroad by the other parent, and participated in three travel fairs. State does an annual mailing and press release targeting college students planning foreign travel, particularly for spring break, advising them about risks involved in drugs, alcohol, and disorderly behavior. Some young people are caught off-guard by unfamiliar surroundings and differences in local practices. Our experience has shown that alerting U.S. travelers to a few common-sense precautions will help them avoid unpleasant and sometimes dangerous situations. This year, we coordinated our education campaign with posts in Mexico, and issued a special press release aimed at the more than 100,000 American teenagers and young adults who travel to Cancun for spring break each year. The U.S. Customs Service, INS, and Agriculture Department joined in the effort and distributed fliers to vacationers crossing into Mexico. We also began efforts to reach younger students by writing to the State Education Commissioners. To improve assistance to Americans in areas where there is no nearby Embassy or Consulate, we opened a new consular agency in Galapagos, and approved new consular agencies in Mexico (4) and in Tahiti. We also resumed full consular services at the U.S. Embassies in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and Skopje, FYROM. CA provided more than $22 million in MRV funds to keep our consular sections functioning. Data from the American Citizens Service (ACS) system (including U.S. passports) at all consular posts worldwide is now transmitted in near-real time to a Consolidated Consular Database in Washington. This data is then available via a web interface to Washington and consular managers. We made up-to-date guidance and reference materials (including consular policy guides and training manuals) available to consular personnel via the Intranet. We also used the Intranet to facilitate long-distance interaction between posts and Washington. These improvements enable consular officers to provide service more quickly to Americans abroad. In FY �, we deployed the Crisis Management module for use by the domestic task force staff to improve our service to Americans during crisis events. CA had installed its new CRISIS program on computers in the Operations Center prior to September 11. Within a few days, CA had set up additional Task Force sites in the consular systems training room and CA conference room. Running up to three training sessions per day, CA had soon trained 250 employees on the use of the new system. The latest ACS release includes improvements to arrest services, and the reporting functionality is facilitated through establishment of the Consular Consolidated Database. We piloted a Consular Lost and Stolen Passport database and improvements to the ACS system. Deployment worldwide will follow in FY �. While still undergoing improvements to our computer programs, we initiated several efforts to track information concerning the well being of Americans overseas. While software improvements are underway, we have used Access programs to serve our needs. This has allowed management to obtain an overall picture of the mistreatment of Americans incarcerated overseas and to share that information with the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Further, this tracking has aided us in identifying problems of delayed notification of arrest and access to Americans arrested abroad. Having established some baseline data, we should now be able to see whether our efforts to counter these breaches on the broader scale have been effective or whether additional steps need to be taken. U.S. compliance with the consular notification and access requirements of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and 165 bilateral consular conventions is essential to the international credibility of the United States as we seek to protect Americans abroad and to defense of litigation in U.S. and international courts. The transfer of State's consular notification program from the Office of the Legal Adviser (L) to CA in 2001 allows State to devote additional resources to improving nationwide compliance with requirements of the treaties. L and CA, often in coordination with the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Office of Protocol, and Office of Foreign Missions, engaged in efforts to educate state and local law enforcement and criminal justice personnel about their responsibilities for consular notification and access, and established liaison relationships with the states. We also worked closely with the Department of Justice and other Federal agencies to ensure that their staffs are fully aware of consular notification and access requirements and established channels of communications with foreign consular officials in the United States. In FY �, there were 4 Consular Corps briefings on consular notification, 11 law enforcement seminars, and 3 meetings with state and local officials. We sent 13,618 copies of our 72-page instructional booklet on consular notification and access to all 50 states, plus D.C. and Guam, and distributed 61,228 Pocket Cards summarizing the consular notification requirements. We began distributing an 11-minute video as a tool to educate government officials at all levels about the requirements. Fifty-nine copies were sent to 12 states. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, we worked with the Department of Justice (FBI and INS) to address concerns raised by foreign embassies regarding the large number of aliens detained on a variety of charges. We have begun the process of tracking the manner of death of Americans who die overseas. Although some pitfalls remain in this area, we believe we will be able to track statistical information on the manner of death and to share that information publicly through our Web site as supplemental to that already contained in our Consular Information Program documents. This endeavor is in response to requests from the public and Congress for additional information on deaths of Americans overseas by year and country. Other work performed by American Citizen Services, such as judicial assistance and loss of nationality, is being tracked using these systems and has helped ensure a proper turnaround as well as the ability to report on the status of a particular case at any given time. The Office of American Citizens Services was the subject of two Inspector General inspections and one GAO review during FY �. First, the OIG and GAO conducted reviews of the Office's role with regard to Overseas Voting Assistance for Private Americans. The Department assists the Department of Defense (DOD) in providing voter assistance to private Americans overseas who wish to vote absentee. The Department抯 program shares information developed by DOD on the procedures of the 50 states with regard to voting absentee, the deadlines for registration in the local and Federal elections as well as information on the elections and the candidates. Our Missions abroad conduct voter outreach and provide assistance to individuals who wish to register and vote absentee. As FY � opened, the Department抯 Voting Assistance Program was busy responding to last‑minute queries from Voting Assistance Officers abroad prior to the 2000 general election. In early 2001, the General Accounting Office and the Department's Inspector General undertook extensive reviews of the Program. While they concluded that we did a fairly good job of assisting voters abroad, they felt that additional training of our personnel, outreach to the public, and oversight of our missions would be beneficial. By the close of FY �, our Chief Voting Action Officer and his staff had developed an action plan that called for an early start to our 2002 voting outreach efforts, expanded training and program direction, greater outreach to voting volunteers and American expatriate communities worldwide, and compilation and dissemination of updated program requirements and guidance through the Department's Intranet and Foreign Affairs Manual. In addition to our Intranet site, which serves as a bulletin board for sharing DOD information and DOS instructions to posts on voting assistance, we have established a global e‑mail link with Voting Assistance Officers and their assistants at every U.S. Embassy and Consulate worldwide. Working with DOD, we are looking to further expand our outreach, training, and general oversight in this arena. The OIG inspection of the Office of American Citizens Services concluded in FY �, but the final report has not been issued as of this date. We understand there is a general view of the need for increased training of ACS officers, particularly new officers, and a need for instructions and guidance to be readily available for these officers. We have already instituted a program whereby each officer maintains a Standard Operating Procedures book with standard instructions and guidance provided by management on the full range of issues confronting the office. Informational and instruction cables sent to our Missions worldwide are now available on the Intranet so as to be readily available to our officers in Washington as well as overseas. We are also looking to contract out for help in updating the American Citizens Services segments of our Foreign Affairs Manuals. CA and posts abroad handled nearly 1,200 parental abduction and prevention cases. The Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs led a U.S. delegation, which included members of the U.S. Central Authority for the Hague abduction convention, the Department of Justice, federal and state judges, practitioners, and attorneys, at the March 2001 Special Commission on the Practical Operation of The Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The U.S./German bilateral working group on international parental child abduction met 3 times, which has resulted in improved access and return orders in new cases, and more German involvement in longstanding cases in Germany. CA conducted a successful test phase of the U.S. Government comprehensive case management tracking system for international parental child abduction cases. CA deployed the International Parental Child Abduction application module to the Office of Children抯 Issues to improve their ability to track abduction cases and to work with other agencies to resolve them. We began the process of implementing the Inter-country Adoption Act of 2000 (IAA), enacted on October 6, 2000. We hired a contractor to provide proposed regulations and a statement of work to implement the IAA and, through the contractor, held two public meetings to discuss draft proposed regulations. CA's Office of Children's Issues led the U.S. delegation to the November 2000 The Hague Special Commission on the Practical Operation of The Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co‑Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. CA and INS coordinated efforts to create an adoption tracking system. We issued more than 19,500 visas worldwide to children being adopted from abroad. We worked to secure enactment of legislation signed on October 30, 2000, that gives automatic citizenship to foreign‑born adopted children and provided guidance to Passport Agencies and posts abroad on implementing the Child Citizenship Act of 2000. Timely and effective passport issuance, with document integrity assured The average wait time for in-person applications in 2001 was within a respectable range of 25 to 46 minutes. However, at our busiest agencies, wait times during peak periods sometimes exceeded 2 hours. Our target for completing routine applications is 25 business days. Our work on hand during the three busiest months averaged 3.1 weeks. We issued 1.9 million passports (27% of the total) within 3 days of receiving the applications. In 2002, we plan to centralize processing of routine passport applications in our two large "mega centers" to improve further the timeliness and efficiency of our service. A primary reason for progress in service levels was our success in adding passport staff. The number of people on board at the end of the year was 17% higher than the previous year. This was a major reason that the number of overtime hours worked decreased by almost 80% from the previous record year. Adequate time away from work is important for our employees' morale, as well as for the quality and accuracy of their work. We have also received much positive feedback from staff on training provided last year. Passport employees enrolled in more than 500 individual courses. We also scheduled on-site training, which enabled us to meet our goal of training 40% of our staff during 2001. We continued to use technology to enhance both the security and efficiency of our operations: We installed the new photodigitization passport issuance system at four additional domestic passport-issuing offices, bringing the total using the new system in FY � to 14 offices covering over 93% of passport workload. By December 2001, all passports issued by the domestic passport agencies will incorporate the use of printed digital photos and related security devices resulting in greatly improved passport security. We began to research ways to efficiently bring this new technology to passports applicants abroad. We completed implementation of PFMWeb, which provides personnel with direct electronic access to full-color digital images of passport records stored in Washington. The system is an invaluable tool that permits exchange of this information directly to a user's desktop for use in lost/stolen passport cases, emergencies involving American citizens, and other critical passport-related cases. We implemented the Passport Lookout Tracking System (PLOTS). PLOTS, available on the Intranet, contains roughly 100,000 fraud files and is designed to virtually replicate fraud files in real-time to any authorized user. Passport Services also completed software to deploy the Consular Lost and Stolen Passport (CLASP) database system allowing posts abroad to enter losses and thefts of U.S. passports. The purpose is to develop a consolidated database of lost and stolen passports and provide that information on a timely basis to the U.S. Customs Service for inclusion in the Treasury Enforcement Control System for use at U.S. borders. Since September 11, we are intensifying efforts to improve electronic data sharing with the other border security agencies (Customs, INS, and APHIS in the Department of Agriculture). In January 2001, a new and improved version of the Passport Acceptance Facility Database became available to our on-line customers. The database抯 search engine allows customers to locate the nearest passport acceptance facility within seconds of entering their ZIP Code. In FY �, 352 post offices, libraries, and other state and local government offices signed up to accept passport applications, with a growing number also offering the option of on-site passport photos. Passport Services also revised the Passport Agent抯 Reference Guide to keep the more than 5,300 passport‑application acceptance facilities advised of changes in policy and procedure. Passport Services received an award from the National Partnership for Reinventing Government for working with the U.S. Postal Service to increase the number of conveniently located places to apply for passports. Passport Services assisted more than a dozen foreign countries in their efforts to improve their national passports and/or their internal controls over passport issuance. This has a direct and beneficial effect on the U.S. visa process as well as U.S. border security since improved passports are harder to alter and counterfeit. In a further effort to ensure the integrity of the U.S. passport, CA will introduce facial recognition technology into the passport adjudication process and develop systems to ensure that U.S. passports are not issued to persons of concern to law enforcement. We will also work with the FBI to create a new passport lookout category for the Consular Lookout and Support System to contain names of all U.S. citizen victims of September 11. This will help prevent identity theft facilitated by the flood of information now in the public domain about the victims.
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