Embassy New Delhi, India and Constituent Posts - OIG - US ...

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mid-level visa managers had to adjudicate over 20,000 NIV applications in FY 2010. While the
OIG team encourages managers to help ELOs with interviewing on a periodic basis, this level of
interviewing deprives managers of the vital time they need to perform their managerial duties.
Recommendation 28: The Bureau of Consular Affairs, in coordination with Embassy New
Delhi and the Bureau of Human Resources, should approve Embassy New Delhi’s request for
three entry-level officer positions for the consular section in New Delhi. (Action: CA, in
coordination with Embassy New Delhi and DGHR)
Almost all posts in India, except Consulate General Kolkata, are using their LE staff too
much in the waiting rooms and outer screening areas to direct customers and provide general
assistance to visa customers. In most missions, contract personnel perform these functions;
however, Mission India has had some malfeasance problems with contract workers, so consular
managers decided to use LE staff almost exclusively for this work, tying up significant LE
resources. Consular managers need to revisit this issue and use a mix of contract personnel and
LE staff for these services, with the majority being contract workers and the LE staff monitoring
their work.
Recommendation 29: Embassy New Delhi should coordinate with consular managers in
Consulates General Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad to reorganize services to visa customers
in the public areas, using primarily contract personnel and using some locally employed staff to
monitor their work. (Action: Embassy New Delhi)
New facilities need to be part of the strategic planning for India 2020, but even before
that decision point is reached, the mission needs to take every possible step to improve
procedural efficiencies. Maximizing use of existing consular windows should be a guiding
principle. CA and the mission could initiate shift work in which two teams of officers and LE
staff would overlap during the working day. One team would start early in the morning and
prepare cases and interview applicants until the middle of the day. The other team would start in
the middle of the day and do the same until the end of the working day. Shift work would not be
an easy or cost-free change. It would require more American and LE staff and more work space.
Currently the only posts that could accommodate more employees in their work spaces are New
Delhi and Mumbai, once the latter moves into its new facility.
A more immediate solution would be to move as much visa processing as possible away
from the windows. The model already exists at some posts, such as in Mexico. If applicants
appeared at an off-site processing center to submit their documents and be fingerprinted,
processing on the day of the visa interview would be faster than it is now. More important, it
would free up windows that could be used by officers for interviews. Chennai, Hyderabad, and
Kolkata are already using their windows to maximum capacity without going to shift work, but
they would have more window capacity if they had off-site data collection.
CA has scheduled Mission India for a comprehensive contract for visa support services
under the Global Support Strategy in the second half of 2011. As part of that contract, CA will
need to decide what level of services the contractor will provide. The highest level, Service
Package 1, includes off-site data collection at centers staffed by contract personnel. Mission
India should get this level of services. CA should take advantage of the exceptionally strong
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