Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir, who has been serving in Malaysia since January last year, said US President Donald Trump’s administration had not set any time frame to lift the freeze imposed on new applications.
Lakhdhir said the US Embassy was working closely with the Malaysian government to achieve the minimum approval rate of 97% in filling up visa forms for business trips (B1) and tourist (B2) visas to the US.
Although the approval rate of B1 and B2 visas was improving, it had yet to reach the 97% level required by the US, she was quoted as saying after visiting the American Corner at the State Library here today.
On the other hand, she said the number of visa approvals for Malaysians furthering their studies in the US had gone up substantially to 99% last year.
She also said the US was working closely with the Malaysian foreign ministry and the immigration department on various border security and passport issues to ensure the safety of both Malaysian and American travellers.
Last year, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had expressed confidence that the government would be able to fulfil all conditions in order to participate in the US visa waiver programme by September 2018.
He said all terms and conditions set by the US had been fulfilled except for one – keeping the percentage of rejected US visa applications to below 3%.
It was reported the rejections were largely due to the applicants’ failure to fill in the forms correctly.
Lakhdhir also said 12 fresh graduates from the US would arrive in Kedah to teach English in schools.
She said they form part of 100 volunteers from the US who were recruited under a programme to help local students improve their grasp of English.