Riyadh, July 07: A Saudi businessman has been waiting for more than four years for a visit visa to the US even though Riyadh and Washington have stepped up efforts to boost political and commercial relations as well as people-to-people contacts.
Jamal Abdulmajeed M. Al-Ali’s application has been pending since April 27, 2005, when he was first interviewed for a visa at the US Embassy in Riyadh.
“For businessmen like me, such harassment in the name of visas reveals how the US State Department’s highhandedness is harming people-to-people contact,” said Al-Ali, 50.
Al-Ali said he has once again canceled plans to visit the US. His three daughters and a servant left for the US on July 3.
“My friends and relatives in Saudi Arabia are greatly concerned about the way the US Embassy is handling my visa affairs,” he added.
Al-Ali, a well-known businessman, also sent a letter to the US ambassador on March 28 seeking his intervention in the case. The letter, however, fell on deaf ears.
Arab News contacted the US Embassy to ascertain details of the case. The embassy, however, said it could not divulge information citing privacy laws. An e-mail (dated July 5) from the US Embassy to Al-Ali said his application was “undergoing administrative processing.”
Al-Ali said his visa application has neither been refused nor been processed so far. He added that on several occasions in the past, the embassy has given the same reply that his case is under process.
“We will inquire again into the status of your visa and we will reply to you once we have new information to share with you … the administrative processing time is (the) unpredictable part of every visa application and we can’t expedite this process,” said the US Embassy Consular Section in another message to Al-Ali on April 7.
Al-Ali, the authorized distributor of an American company in the Gulf region and owner of the Playground Steel Factory in Alkhobar, said he wanted “to know the specific reasons for the extraordinary delay in issuing the visa.”
He said he wishes to visit his two sons and daughter who have been studying in the US. Al-Ali has visited the US many times; his first visit was on Sept. 4, 1999.
Al-Ali’s two sons, Mohammed and Abdul Majeed — are studying at Filencia College, Orlando. Mohammed and his sister Fatimah are US nationals. The businessman, who has a bank account in the US with thousands of dollars in deposits, also called on the US and Saudi officials to intervene in his case and resolve the issue.
—Agencies