2:00 P.M. EDT
Real Audio of Briefing
MR MACHAMER: Good afternoon, and welcome to the Foreign Press Center. We're very pleased to have with us today Ms. Janice Jacobs, who is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services of the Bureau of Consular Affairs. She is here this afternoon to talk about the change in the State Department's reissuing service for certain visas, which I'm sure you all are interested in.
And with that, I'll turn it over to her.
MS. JACOBS: Thank you, and good afternoon to everybody. I think I'd like to begin by reading a statement that was put out at the State Department on the 23rd of June. The State Department is discontinuing its domestic reissuance service for E, H, I, L, O and P visas. The Department will stop accepting applications for these visa classifications on July 16th, 2004. The Department will continue to process diplomatic and official visas -- that's A, G, and NATO visas -- in Washington and at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York.
This action is being taken because Section 303 of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act requires the State Department to incorporate a biometric in every U.S. visa issued after October 26, 2004. All visa adjudicating posts abroad will have fingerprint scanning equipment installed before the October deadline.
Persons residing in the United States in one of the affected visa classes may continue to reside in the country for the period granted by the Department of Homeland Security officers at Ports of Entry. If these persons depart the United States and require new visas to reenter after July 16th, they must seek adjudication of a new visa application at a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad.
A notice announcing the termination of domestic reissuance service for these visas appeared in the Federal Register on June 23rd.
I'd like to answer one of the most frequent questions that we've received so far, and then open it up for further questions.
We've been asked by several people if they need to apply for visas in their home country, or can they apply at any of our visa adjudicating posts abroad. The answer is, you can apply at any post where you are physically present. You do not have to return to your home country to apply for a visa. We encourage that, because when you apply in your home country, the consular officers there are most familiar with the local circumstances and are best able to make a determination about your case. But you do not have to apply in your home country. You can apply at another post outside of the United States, and I will talk a little bit more about how you can make appointments at different posts overseas. You do have to be physically present, however.
MR. MACHAMER: Before we take questions, please remember to wait for the microphone and to identify yourself by name and news organization. Thank you very much. We'll start right here --
QUESTION: Emad Mekay with Inter Press Service. I was wondering how far before the visa expires we're required to get a new visa. Also, in -- particularly in my own case, for example, my visa expires just right in the middle of the election campaign, which means that I would have to leave the country during my very important coverage of the election campaign, on perhaps November 1st, because that's when it expires, to get a new visa and come back again. So --
MS. JACOBS: Okay. Just keep in mind that I think sometimes there's some confusion about the visa versus the authorized length of stay in the United States. As long as you've been granted a stay by the Department of Homeland Security in the United States and that is still valid, you can stay here. When you travel abroad, if your visa is getting ready to expire or has expired, then you will have to seek a new visa in order to come back into the United States.
QUESTION: But I'm saying that since we cannot leave the country during the elections --
MS. JACOBS: Right.
QUESTION: -- can we leave now, get a new visa even though we have still a few months valid on our visa -- some of us? Would that do or we have to travel around the last few days of our visa? Thanks.
MS. JACOBS: Right. Normally, you wait until your visa is ready to expire before you seek a new one. We would have to, I think, give instructions to posts about any special circumstances that might arise. But, again, you wouldn't have a problem with your stay in the United States. That is not, you know, related to your visa.
MR. MACHAMER: Let's go to Russia here in the middle.
QUESTION: Ivan Lebedev with Russian News Agency TASS. It said on the official site of the visa office that visa revalidation processing takes now approximately from 10 to 12 weeks. And my question is would you agree that it's too long period of time to wait for the visa renewal? And can you imagine the situation when people will have to come back to their own countries every year and wait there for two or three months to get their new visas, to leave their posts, to leave their offices here in the United States? Imagine what would happen if you leave your post for two or three months, okay? So would you agree that it's too long period of time for waiting for visa revalidation? And what period of time would be appropriate, in your view, to wait for getting your visa?
MS. JACOBS: Okay, to answer your first question, I don't think that the processing time that we offer right now for revalidating visas is too long. You have to remember that this is a special service that we have been able to provide over the years and we are not set up as a normal embassy or consular section abroad with the same number of resources. I think when you consider, you know, collecting the fees and the resources that we have to provide this very special service that it is not a lengthy processing time. We have always, I think, made very clear what the processing times are so that people can allow for that amount of time to have their visas revalidated.
To answer your second question, we are sending instructions to all of our visa processing posts overseas to please give special consideration, to the extent that they can, for people who would normally benefit from the revalidation program. What that means is that we want people to try to give you priority when setting appointments but we are asking for people to use existing appointment systems.
All of our embassies overseas have some type of appointment system. In some instances there's a number you can call or a friend or a relative in the country can call to set up an appointment. All of that information is available for each individual post online. If you go to the State Department website there is a way to go in and look at individual embassies and consulates where it explains the appointment system.
We strongly encourage people, if you're going to be applying, wherever you're going to be applying, to look at that information, to make an appointment, to try to time your visa application with a trip home or a trip abroad. When you talk about a two-month waiting period, I think you may be talking about at some posts there is a longer waiting period for an appointment, but, again, we are sending instructions to all of our posts to try to give priority to people who normally would have benefited from this revalidation program and so I think that you're not going to have a two-month wait. And certainly if you do, then we're going to hear back from you and from anyone else who has that experience and we will try to take care of that.
MODERATOR: Let's go back in the back.
QUESTION: Jorge Banales from the Spanish News Agency. If a foreign correspondent has to renew his visa and he's with his family here, everyone has to travel?
MS. JACOBS: No. Again, you're talking about two different things, I think, the visa and the authorized length of stay in the U.S. If you, as the principal applicant, have to go overseas and apply for a new visa, you will come back and you will be in status and your family will continue to be in status. So no. But if their visas are getting ready to expire the next time that they do go overseas then they will, in fact, have to go in and apply for a new visa.
MODERATOR: Let's go to the right.
QUESTION: Miroslav Konvalina, Czech Public Radio. I don't agree that it's so easy to get appointment with some of your people abroad. In Czech Republic the experience some (inaudible) trying to get some information about visa for journalists, especially there is a problem that all Czech journalists are experienced that their wives can't get social security number so they can't get driver's license or they can't work even voluntary. In D.C., we can't deduct them from taxes so they are left behind.
So the question is, is it just that we are not well-informed, or that our wives just can't operate here if they don't have driver's license?
MS. JACOBS: I'm afraid I'm not able to answer that. I'm not sure what the local regulations are. You're talking about the inability of your spouse to get a driver's license?
QUESTION: Not my spouse, all spouses of the Czech journalists who are accredited like permanent correspondent in here, that there is no way we can get social security, then we can't driver's license. So then this life of our wives is very limited in D.C. and we can't the answer from the Czech Embassy, from the U.S. Embassy in Prague, we can't get answer here, just everybody sending us to different places. Nobody's ready to answer this elementary question.
MS. JACOBS: Okay. I will have to take your question and get back to you, because I'm not sure what the answer is on that.
I think there still may be some confusion about what a visa is and what happens when someone comes in with the authorized length of stay. We do have someone here from the Department of Homeland Security. I don't know if he'd like to come up and talk a little bit about that, because when I answered that question, I still saw some puzzled expressions in the audience. There is a difference between your visa and the length of stay that's authorized by the Department of Homeland Security.
MR. HOWLEY: Good afternoon. My name's Craig Howley. I'm with Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the old legacy INS. And as Ms. Jacobs was saying, I think there is some misunderstanding about the validity of the visa and about validity of your authorized period of stay once you've been admitted into the United States.
For example, those of you who are here on "I" visas, to the best of my knowledge, you were given an admission code of DS, which means Duration of Status, which does not expire until you leave the United States. For example, with an "I" visa, you don't come into Immigration and ask for an extension. Your stay doesn't expire, for example.
So you can be here working for your foreign employer. Your visa, which is the document you use to apply for admission to the United States, can expire, but you're still here lawfully, because your period of stay is what the inspector granted when you were at the airport, for example. I hope that makes it a little clearer.
MODERATOR: Okay, let's go in the middle here.
QUESTION: Thank you. Ruben Barrera with the Mexican News Agency. I would like if you, Ms. Jacobs, can clarify again, you say initially that no one has to our consulate authorities to apply for a visa. So, I mean, just being clear in that, because as you are saying this, it implied that I can make the request to renew my visa from the United States. I mean, I want to just be clear about.
The other thing is, you say, for example, that you are sending notice to your consulates abroad to give certain consideration to us in this case. But I wonder if you are taking in account that, for example, in consulates like Mexico, the number of people seeking visas is really -- I would say among the highest that you have in -- around the world.
And the other thing, I understand perfectly what is the difference between and visa and my resident permit, which is usually this white piece of paper attached to my passport. I understand it clearly. I only have one concern regarding the fact that we can stay here lawfully even if our visa has expired. And the thing is that there seems to be that some people at the old INS, now the Homeland Security Department, especially the agents who process people coming through the airports or the land ports, they don't understand quite well -- it seems that they don't understand quite well some of the rules. And I had some experience where some of these people had been really giving me a hard time.
So I just want to make sure, I mean -- what assurance could you give us that there is going to be some type of coordination between you guys and Homeland Security Department to make sure that, you know, these people who are really -- and sometimes is the third people that we can deal when we arrive to the country -- know the rules, because, you know, no one can (inaudible) for sure, that you know, our entrance to the country is going to be a smooth one.
MS. JACOBS: Right. Okay. Well, let me just reassure you, I've served in Mexico twice and I know we do a lot of visas in Mexico, no question about that.
What I was saying earlier, though, is that you don't have to apply in your home country. It is possible to make an appointment at another embassy outside of your home country. There are different ways of doing that. Sometimes there's a number that you could call from the United States in order to make an appointment, or friends or relatives in another country can set up an appointment for you. That's what I meant by setting up an appointment from the United States
As far as cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, we do work very, very closely with the Department on a wide range of issues, including entry/exit procedures at the port of entry. I don't think anyone can guarantee what is going to happen at any given time when someone comes in because that is up to the individual inspector. But, in general, they certainly know, they've been trained, we've all been trained in what the rules are, and so if there is a problem it may be related to how long you stayed here, whether you really are an intending immigrant, something like that. But there is a lot of coordination. I mean, that's why we invited CIS to come here today so we could try to explain as best we can how we do work together and the differences between visas and length of stay.
MODERATOR: Before the question, please, we have a lot of people and a lot of hands up and we had a limited amount of time, so when you ask your questions, please have them ready, please have them short and to the point.
Second row.
QUESTION: Just to follow up on two thing --
MODERATOR: Would you please wait for the microphone?
QUESTION: You say that you don't believe that the time to process a visa, it's too long, when my colleagues from Russia talk about two months. Could you give us an estimate, then? I mean, how long does it take to process a visa, in the best of your knowledge?
MS. JACOBS: It really varies from post to post. There's no way to give you a standard time. At some posts the appointment systems are a little more backed up than at others. Again, we're asking the posts to please give priority when setting appointments, if they can, to people who would normally benefit from this domestic revalidation program.
We have done something similar with student applications. We've asked our embassies overseas to try to give priority to students whenever they're setting appointments. We're going to be asking them to provide the same kind of service for people who would normally benefit from this program.
All posts, though, have different resource issues and so they're going to do this to the extent that they can. Some posts will be able to do it very easily. It might take a little bit longer. I can't think of any case, though, where it should take two months. And if it does, if it's taking anyone a long time, we need to hear back, the State Department needs to hear back about that so that we can address that particular post to see if there's a problem.
QUESTION: My name is Sridhar Krishnaswami with the Hindu newspaper. (Inaudible) going to third country and picking up a visa. Now, why would Canada and Mexico want to give me a visa to get into the country when my U.S. visa is expiring?
MS. JACOBS: Well, they would give you an appointment and interview you, I think as a matter of courtesy. I think that the cases that come through this revalidation program, for the most part, are good cases.
QUESTION: No, ma'am, that's not my question. My question is why would the Canadian Government, you know, or the Mexican Government want to give me, a journalist, a visa to get into their country to apply to the American embassy when my American visa is close to running out or has already run out?
MS. JACOBS: Well, I don't know. You'd have to address --
QUESTION: So this whole (inaudible) thing is (inaudible) you know, it doesn't (inaudible).
MS. JACOBS: Well, I'm not sure that all countries have visa requirements. I mean, all countries have different visa requirements for different nationalities, I believe.
MODERATOR: In the center.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MODERATOR: Would you wait for the microphone, please?
QUESTION: Thanks. Two questions and a suggestion.
MODERATOR: Could you identify yourself, please?
QUESTION: Yes, I'm sorry. Tom Buhrow with ARD German Public Television. Hi.
In your statement it said that this goes back to the Section 303 where the State Department has to incorporate a biometric in every visa issued after October 26th.
MS. JACOBS: Right.
QUESTION: Does that mean that even valid visas beyond October 26 have to apply for a new visa including it so we can stay our visas? Okay, great.
MS. JACOBS: Yeah.
QUESTION: That was question number one. My suggestion would be it would be very helpful because you have to leave at some point with your family to get the visa renewed in your home country or elsewhere, it would be really helpful if that could be done prior to the visa expiration because then you could time it and synchronize it with a holiday stay or a home visit that you had planned anyway; otherwise, you have to wait until you're close to visa expiration, make an appointment, and then pay for an extra flight for your whole family just to get it renewed in that timeframe, which may be inconvenient because of the election, like, for example, with this gentleman. So that's my suggestion.
Second question is: Do you think it would be only fair if our countries would be reciprocal actions and require the same things of American journalists living abroad?
MS. JACOBS: I don't know what the different policies are of the countries represented here about renewing visas in country, but certainly any country is able to adopt whatever procedure that they think is appropriate. This particular one, as I mentioned in my statement at the beginning, is done because of a legislative requirement that we have to include biometrics with the visas that we issue by October 26th of this year. There is no way for us to collect that biometric here in the U.S. and that's why we're having to shut down the service.
QUESTION: TV Parasuram, Press Trust of India. I am here.
MS. JACOBS: Oh.
QUESTION: TV Parasuram from the Press Trust of India.
The question I have is that if you are told by Mr. Boucher in the State Department that the State Department issues 50,000 visas annually and 50 percent of them are Indian and I wonder whether -- are Indians, I wonder whether you can confirm that.
And secondly, I would point out that not one single Indian has been hijacker or been in trouble, and so why you pick on Indians?
MS. JACOBS: Well, I would say that you're right, I think about 46 percent of the people who have used this service over the years have been Indians and I don't think that we're -- I think that it just turned out that way. A lot of the visas that we renew are people working here in the information technology field and there are a lot of Indians doing that and I think that's why it turned out that way.
This is not aimed at any particular nationality. I think that the Indians have over the years benefited the most from this program, but it just turned out that way. Again, this is being done primarily because of a congressional requirement that we have for collecting biometrics and we're also overseas doing more interviews of applicants now than we did in the past. Again, we don't conduct those interviews here in the U.S.
What we have been told by our Inspector General, what we've been told by Congress and GAO is that basically what we were doing in the U.S. was not what we are now doing overseas and that we needed to fix that. But, really, it's because we cannot collect the fingerprints in the United States. That's the primary reason why we're having to end this service.
MODERATOR: First row here.
QUESTION: Malcolm Brown from Feature Story News. I don't really understand why it's impossible to collect the biometric data here. Why can the U.S. embassy in Chad, say, collect biometric data and the State Department in Washington not?
MS. JACOBS: Because they have the equipment and the personnel to do so. We have no means of bringing people into the State Department like we would into a consular section overseas. We've never done that and we have no plans for doing that.
QUESTION: There are people here currently reprocessing "I" visas and so on. So is it just not a question of them getting biometric capture equipment, which can't be a huge expense?
MS. JACOBS: But you would have to bring people in to do that. We're not prepared to do that. We don't have the ability to bring in, to set up an embassy, overseas embassy, at the State Department.
MODERATOR: Okay, right next to him.
QUESTION: Hello. Christiane Oelrich, German Press Agency. What assurance can you give us that third party -- a third country embassy does actually process our visas? I know from my own experience that, for example, the U.S. embassy in Switzerland does not service anyone who does not reside in Switzerland.
MS. JACOBS: As I said, we are getting ready to send out instructions to the field asking them to please give consideration to these cases.
QUESTION: And if you send out a request, are they free to either go along with it or not, or is this an order that they should do that?
MS. JACOBS: It is an instruction to them that says basically to the extent possible. If a post for resource reasons, if they have staffing gaps or there are other things going on where they simply can't do it, they will come back and tell us. We will try to get the word out then to you, to the community that, you know, it's better not to apply in Bern or whatever post has any particular problems.
MODERATOR: Let's go all the way in the back.
QUESTION: Yongjing Li, China Radio International.
You said the State Department is stopping the service on July 16th and if an application is filed, say, on July the 10th and it is received on July the 15th, will it be processed?
MS. JACOBS: Yes, I think right up until midnight of --
PARTICIPANT: Five p.m. on July 16th.
MS. JACOBS: Five p.m. on July 16th.
QUESTION: Okay. Thank you.
MODERATOR: Right here.
QUESTION: K.P. Nayar from the Telegraph newspaper. I'll be brief but my question has two parts. Is there any move, after following these changes, is there any move on the part of the State Department to review the reciprocity agreement with the countries affected by these categories of visas? And I ask this because I understand that a Chinese journalist here with an "I" visa, he gets only 90 days' duration and single entry, and if a Chinese journalist is covering the region each time he goes through Venezuela or Cuba, he has to get a new visa in order to come back.
My wife, for instance, has a Slovak passport, and the reciprocity agreement with the Slovak Government is for one year. So each time anybody in these categories, the Chinese, for instance, each time they have to get visa to come back, have you taken into account the fact that in implementing this law, actually you are putting hurdles in the way of journalists from performing their responsibilities as foreign correspondents in this country?
Secondly, the second part of the question is related to what [my colleague]* asked about issuing, getting visas from third countries. It's my experience that when I go to Canada or Mexico, if my U.S. visa has expired, the border controls in Mexico or Canada don't actually let me in, because if -- I have an Indian passport, and if I don't have a U.S. visa, unless I have an etiquette to return to my home country, which is India, they don't actually let me in, either to Canada or to Mexico, because of their own border considerations.
So have you taken into account the fact that this idea of third countries assurance is, in practical terms, not workable?
MS. JACOBS: Let me answer your first question about reciprocity. Certainly, when this program, we decided to terminate this program, we knew that there would be these problems. This was something where we really had no discretion. We have to collect biometrics; we're not able to do that here in the U.S. and so we have to end the program.
Reciprocity, though, really is a separate issue, and it really is just that. We give to nationals of other countries what those countries give to American citizens. In the case of China, we are talking to the Chinese Government about extending reciprocity for certain categories, but we need their guarantee that they will offer Americans in that same category the same treatment.
We, of course, are willing to have those discussions with any government who wants to open up reciprocity for discussion. If they're willing to grant Americans going in those same categories the same treatment, then we're happy to have that discussion.
On the visa requirements for different countries, you know, in order to go in to apply for a U.S. visa, it is something that we thought about. I think it's something that we put out in our press guidance that would be a factor. I think each country has its own visa requirements. You know, some people enter without, some need visas, and that could be an additional hurdle. Again, it may be easier to go back to the home country for that reason, but, you know, we hope that people will be able to work it out so that they can apply in third countries.
For our part, if you are able to go to a third country, we are going to do everything we can to get your visa processed as quickly as possible.
MODERATOR: Wait for the microphone please, and please identify yourself.
QUESTION: Christian Maria Meier, German Television. If your visa is about to run out and you have to leave the country, what is the period of time before the visa expires that allows you to come back in? Can you do that until the very last day?
MS. JACOBS: Yes. You can.
QUESTION: You can. Okay. Thank you.
MODERATOR: Okay, right behind her.
QUESTION: My name is Kasper Zeuthen, Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan. Just to clarify, you mentioned that -- that's the system of the appointments, something to be made at the embassies. Is there a limit to when you can make those appointments? In other words, my visa is expiring at the end of this year. Can I call up the embassy today, make an appointment so I'm booked in advance, and is that the time-consuming part of renewing it? In other words, once I have my appointment, can I come in, as I've done in the past, and have it done in the same day in the sense of renewing it and how does that work?
MS. JACOBS: I think each of the appointment systems work differently. I think the best recommendation is once you've decided where you're going to apply is to find out, contact the post directly if you can't get the information from the website, ask them how far in advance you can make an appointment.
For most people, you are able to get the visa once you've had your interview, either that day or the next day. We are going to 48-hour processing at many of our posts now because of some of the other procedures that we have put in place. But provided there are no problems -- and by that, I mean that there's no history of immigration problems or you're not in a lookout system -- you should get your visa very quickly.
MODERATOR: Okay, in the very back.
QUESTION: Thank you. Donghui Yu from China News Service. As we know, there are many H1 visa holders in the United States. According to the new regulations, if their H1 visas expired, should they go back to their home country or to a third country to apply?
And my second question is, if this H1 visa holder were laid off in their company, and then found a new job in a new company, should they also go back to their country to apply for the H1 visa?
MS. JACOBS: Well, your first question is whether you should apply in your home country, and I think we've talked about that. I mean, we are recommending that, whenever possible, you do apply in your home country, but you do have the option of applying at other posts.
If you have switched employers in the United States, then you should have a new petition, I believe, and I don't know if you want to talk about that, but basically when you go to seek your new visa, you would have to have the petition from your current employer in order to apply for the visa.
MODERATOR: Right here in the front.
QUESTION: Okay, ma'am.
MODERATOR: Could you identify yourself, please?
QUESTION: Hoda Tawfik, Al Ahram, Egypt. You said that the applications before the 16th for renewal of the visa will be processed, accepted and processed, even though the visa will expire in two, three months? If the person is obliged to travel for some emergency, and coming back, there has to be six months to the visa. So if we apply now, and we have all the papers ready, and the visa was issued before in the United States State Department, so it has been issued here, can it be renewed immediately, like before the 16th? Will it be processed and renewed before the 16th? If we apply before the 16th?
MS. JACOBS: Yes. Yes, yes.
QUESTION: So we can already do it here.
MS. JACOBS: You can still take advantage of the service here in the states until July 16th.
QUESTION: And reapply on the 13th, you said, or the 15th?
MS. JACOBS: You can apply up until five p.m. on July 16th.
QUESTION: So we can go ahead -- even though it expires, like, in three months.
MS. JACOBS: Yes.
MS. TANNENBAUM: Let me qualify one thing that Ms. Jacobs just said.
MODERATOR: Introduce yourself.
MS. TANNENBAUM: I'm sorry, I'm Jane Tannenbaum. I'm from the visa office and one of Ms. Jacobs' employees. Let me address that point, because it's a good one. We have stated very carefully on our website, travel.state.gov, after the announcement of the discontinuation of the service, that all other rules continue to apply. In other words, we do not take applications more than 60 days before the expiration of the visa. If your visa is expiring in August, yes, you could send it in now. If your visa expires presumably up to September 16th, that would be considered within two months; we would take that. If you visa expires in December, no. That's always been the rule and we're sticking to it during the discontinuation.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) in November. What do you do?
MS. TANNENBAUM: No. That would have to be renewed abroad during your next trip outside of the United States.
QUESTION: So you don't accept the application --
MS. TANNENBAUM: Not more than 60 days before the expiration of the visa. That's a longstanding rule. Yes.
MODERATOR: Okay, right here. And this will have to be our last question.
QUESTION: Emad Mekay, Inter Press Service. A follow-up for the gentleman from the Homeland Security Department, please. Again, on the H1B visa, if someone gets an approval on his or her petition, that he can still stay in the U.S. for another three years, but their old visa expires in a few months, for example, can they -- can we still stay in the U.S., even though the visa expired, but not the approval from the Homeland Security --
MR. HOWLEY: Yes. The visa expiration only deals when that individual has a need to travel outside of the United States. If an H1B stays for their initial period and their extension period and never travels outside of the United States, and the visa that our consular post has issued expires, that individual is still fine. They're here lawfully for their granted period of admission.
However, if they make an exit, if they leave for holiday or to go to the home office or whatever, and their visa has expired, they will be obligated to go into a post and obtain a new, valid H1B visa.
QUESTION: But wouldn't be this way in violation, and therefore, they run the risk of not being able to come back again into the country, because their visa is --
MR. HOWLEY: But coming back into the country, one would need a valid visa.
QUESTION: Right.
MR. HOWLEY: And we're talking two completely separate things. A valid visa, which is your entry document, which is the vehicle you use to apply for admission to the United States; and your granted period of admission, which is what the inspector grants you, or in the case of an H1B, applying for an extension, is what one of the CIS service centers authorizes.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MODERATOR: I'm sorry, we'll have to wrap it up, ma'am.
