The United States Embassy has announced new visa application guidelines to avoid a repeat of last year's student visa backlog.

The embassy's press office said in a statement that Malaysian male visa applicants between the ages of 16 and 45 may now apply for their visas as soon as they receive their letter of admission from their universities.

"That means we can begin and possibly complete the clearance process before students receive their I-20s and DS-2019 (documents)," said the embassy.

Sept 11 delays

According to the embassy, several steps that have been taken to prevent similar backlog problems as the previous year.

"Since Dec 2002, there have been dramatic improvements in visa clearance processing. While we cannot guarantee that a visa application will be processed in a set time, in general, applicants subject to supplemental processing can expect final approval of their visas in less than o­ne month.

"(In addition), Embassy staff carefully track student visa applications that are delayed and work with the US State Department to resolve each o­ne."

Last year, the slow issuance of student visas sparked complaints by hundreds of applicants, some of whom were unable to travel to the US in time for the start of their varsity terms.

The delays were due to the imposition of more stringent screening procedures for visa applicants to the US following the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The new measures, which included an extensive interview, were implemented mainly for countries with large Muslim populations and affect o­nly male applicants.

Register with MACEE

Meanwhile, the embassy dismissed "rumours circulating in some communities" o­n restrictions in visa numbers and said there has been no limitation in the percentage of visas issued in Malaysia.

"Despite the delays experienced last year, the vast majority of Malaysian visa applications were approved. The percentage is even higher for Malaysian students. These percentages have not changed since Sept 11," said the statement.

To further expedite student visa approvals, the embassy urged prospective students to register with the Malaysian American Commission o­n Educational Exchange (MACEE), whose offices are based in Menara John Hancock in Kuala Lumpur and the KDE Building in Penang.

"MACEE registration isn't required to get a visa but their staff is highly knowledgeable about the student visa application process and will sit down with applicants as they complete their forms to ensure all questions are answered to the fullest extent," said the embassy.