Amidst worries that foreign fans who will require visas to visit the U.S. next year for the World Cup will have trouble getting them in time – or at all – the Trump administration has announced a new initiative to expedite the process.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration has dispatched more than 400 additional consular officers around the world to handle the demand for visas, and that in about 80% of the globe, travellers to the U.S. can get a visa appointment within 60 days.
Dubbed “FIFA Pass,” it will allow those who have purchased World Cup tickets through FIFA to get expedited visa appointments. The “pass” in the name stands for “prioritized appointments scheduling system.”
“If you have a ticket for the World Cup, you can have prioritized appointments to get your visa,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino, in explaining the process.
Under the new system, those who have bought tickets through FIFA will be allowed to go through a “FIFA portal” that would help get their visa application and interview prioritized at the State Department.
“We’re going to do the same vetting as anybody else would get,” Rubio said. “The only difference here is, we’re moving them up in the queue.”
Still, those needing a visa to visit the U.S. are encouraged to apply for their visas “right away.”
During next year’s World Cup, 104 games will be played in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Trump has made the success of the World Cup a top priority, and Infantino has been a frequent visitor to the White House while FIFA prepares for a Dec. 5 World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center, the arts institution now led and managed by Trump loyalists.
Trump once again floated the prospect of moving World Cup games out of one of its host cities if he deemed it to be unsafe, with the election of progressive activist Katie Wilson as mayor of Seattle who has talked about Trump-proofing the city and protecting its sanctuary city status for migrants. Seattle is one of the 11 host cities in the U.S. next year.
“If we think there’s gonna be sign of any trouble, I would ask Gianni to move that to a different city,” Trump said of Seattle.
The FIFA president stepped around the issue without committing to move host cities, noting that “I think safety and security is the number one priority for a successful World Cup” and that “we can see today that people have trust in the United States,” noting the number of tickets that have already been sold.
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