30-day visa rule quite flexible

The INS says the proposed limit would not affect the foreign visitors and retirees who own or rent Florida vacation homes.

[Times photo: Fred Victorin] Paul and Olive Parfitt stroll the Indian Shores beach within a short walk of their condo. The INS proposes doing away with the automatic six-month stay, reducing it to 30 days. "It was a shock when we heard that," says Olive Parfitt of England.

By ALICIA CALDWELL, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 15, 2002

Olive Parfitt was a bit concerned when she first heard about the Immigration and Naturalization Service's proposed tightening of regulations governing foreign visitors.

After all, she and her husband have traveled from their native England to their vacation condominium in Indian Shores each year for the past 13 years. In recent years, they've stretched their visits to last several months.

The idea that the INS changes might limit their stays to 30 days -- one facet of reforms proposed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- gave her pause.

"It was a shock when we heard that," said Parfitt, 58, a semiretired receptionist and office manager.

As it turns out, the proposed regulations likely will have little impact on retirees who own or rent vacation homes in the region, according to INS spokeswoman Amy Otten.

"Though it's been called a 30-day rule, that's not what it is," she said. "We're just trying to match the visitors to what they really need."

The proposed changes, she said, essentially would do away with the automatic six-month stay, and instead would have INS inspectors scrutinize visitors' plans and reasons for being here and issue visas accordingly. For instance, if visitors have arranged for a vacation rental for three months, their visas will be issued for the same amount of time. In addition, the maximum stay for tourists would go from one year to six months.

"For people who own or rent a vacation house, they shouldn't have any problems," Otten said.

The 30-day visa, Otten said, kicks in when the INS cannot determine how long a person needs to stay in the United States.

Furthermore, INS officials insist that the retiree who wants to stay in his vacation home longer than six months should not have much difficulty in obtaining an extension to his visa. The INS' Web site, www.ins.gov, details the changes in a fact sheet.

It says: "INS does recognize that some visitors, such as certain retirees who own vacation homes in the United States, may wish to remain for longer than six months. The proposed rules will allow extensions of stay in such cases."

The proposed rule changes could affect the plans of millions of visitors. According to Tom Flanigan, spokesman for Visit Florida, the official tourism and marketing agency for the state, 5.6-million overseas visitors came to Florida in 2001.

It is a small, but significant portion of the state's total tourism numbers. Domestic visitors tallied 62.3-million last year, and 1.9-million Canadians came to the United States, Flanigan said.

Flanigan said the tourism agency would scrutinize the potential impact, but said that upon first analysis it seemed that it would not diminish Florida tourism.

"Our initial interpretation is that the impact of these changes likely will be minimal," Flanigan said. "I know that's tap-dancing around the issue, but until we talk to other folks, such as Canadian tourism officials, and really look at it, we won't really know."

A representative from the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., said that Canadian officials were waiting for the INS to release detailed regulations to make a final analysis, but initial indications are that the changes would have little effect on Canadians visiting the United States.

"It is our understanding that there will be some flexibility for Canadians who want to stay in the U.S. for extended periods," said Pam Chappell, media relations officer for the Canadian Embassy. "We'll make sure that their interests are watched."

Statistics from the INS, posted on the agency's Web site, show that of the nearly 5.6-million foreign visitors to Florida in 1999, most of them, 4.8-million, came to the state on vacation.

Of those visitors, 428,000 were from Germany, and nearly 1.3-million were from the United Kingdom.

Hugh Hunter, the British vice counsel posted in Orlando, said that so far the proposed regulations haven't caused much consternation among the people with whom he deals.

"It will make a difference in practice, but to the vast majority of people, it won't mean a bit of change," Hunter said.

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