The Visa Division of the State Department yesterday told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that it has not received applications for transit visas from 200 Jewish refugees in Shanghai who have complained that the U.S. consulate in Shanghai is delaying their emigration by not issuing visas permitting them to pass through the western part of the U.S.
The refugees, who have visas for Latin American countries, were told that the consul submitted their applications to Washington for approval, but officials at the Visa Division explained that was not necessary. They said that individual applications about which there is any doubt may be referred to them, but that in general consulates are authorized to issue transit visas on the spot.
Visa officials here said that applications of U.S. citizens get priority and that the Shanghai consulate is very short of personnel. They stressed that entry visas to Latin American countries have sometimes been found invalid and that applicants who lived under Japanese occupation, as did these refugees, must be cleared by security officials.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
