美国旅游业呼吁开放更多中国签证

Political leaders in Washington are under pressure to simplify and speed up the visa process for Chinese people seeking to visit the United States. The calls from the US travel industry and from US-China business advocates come just as Congress moves forward with a new law to increase immigration quotas for highly skilled workers in places like China. But as our Washington Correspondent Daniel Ryntjes reports, there are growing calls for even more comprehensive reform of a system that has proved frustratingly slow for many potential Chinese travelers and immigrants.
美国的政治领导人在压力下，简化、加快想去美国旅游的中国人的签证过程。美国旅游业和中美商业倡议人的呼吁在国会推进新的法律来增加中国等地的高技术工人的移民配额时到来。但是，正如我们的华盛顿记者Daniel Ryntjes报道的，要求更广泛地改善被证实减缓很多潜在的中国游客和移民的系统的呼声不断增加。

In a rare and overwhelmingly positive vote of 389 for and 15 against, the House of Representatives has agreed to raise the immigrant quotas for highly skilled individuals, to the benefit of individuals in larger countries like China. The US Senate is also expected to approve the idea.
在以389票赞成和15票反对的罕见的压倒性投票中，出于对像中国等较大国家的个体利益，众议院同意增加高技能个体的移民配额。预计美国参议院也将批准该提议。

China Immigration expert Ted Gong said: "That bill changes the per-country limit, so that instead of 7% per country, you can increase it by 15%. That means then that countries like India and China which are very backlogged, they can get more people to come to the United States more quickly."
中国移民专家Ted Gong表示：“这个议案改变了每个国家的限额，所以每个国家可以增加15%，而不是7%。这就意味着像印度、中国这样签证积压严重的国家可以使更多的人更快地来到美国。”

The backlog for applicants is partly the result of raised security requirements following the attacks of September 11th 2001, which has adversely impacted the US travel industry.
申请人申请积压部分原因是2011年9.11袭击事件之后安全要求的提高，9.11袭击事件对美国的旅游业产生不利影响。

Spokesperson for US Travel Association Robert Bobo said: "Chinese travelers, but everyone else in the entire world now, after 9/11, has to undergo a personal interview with a US embassy or consulate staffer. And so that means that there are more people that are needing to be seen by these visa processing centers, consulates, embassies, but we don’t meet the demand with enough staff or with enough resources."
美国旅游协会发言人Robert Bobo称：“9.11之后，不仅是中国游客，世界其他人现在都必须接受美国大使或领事馆工作人员的私人面谈。这就意味着在这些签证办理中心、领事馆、大使馆里，会看到更多的人，但是我们没有足够的工作人员或足够的资源来满足需求。”

The US State Department has increased the number of staff in China to handle these interviews after a 123% rise in the number of non-immigrant visa applications in the last 5 years. They’ve been working on about 1 million adjudications in China this year alone.
过去五年非移民签证申请数量增加123%后，美国国务院增加了在中国的工作人员的数量来应对这些面谈。今年单单在中国，他们就做出了大约100万个的判定。

Bobo said: "If we could implement a better visa policy then we would see an increase in the amount of travel to the United States which could possibly add about $850 billion to our economy and increase jobs by 1.3 million."
Bobo表示：“如果我们能贯彻更好的签证政策，那么我们就将见证到美国旅游的数量的增加，这可能为我们的经济增加8500亿美元，增加130万个工作岗位。

On the immigration side, some Chinese people are taking advantage of a program in which they can qualify to settle in the US if they invest at least $1 million or just $500,000 into designated high unemployment areas.
在移民方面，一些中国人正利用一项计划，该计划规定，如果他们在指定的高失业率地区投资至少100万美元或只是50万美元，他们就有资格移民美国。

Ralph Winnie Jr, China Program director in Eurasia Center, said: "There are a lot of success stories of US and Chinese companies that have been able to partner together. And that really needs to be the focus and we really need to make it easier to streamline the visa process."
欧亚大陆中心中国项目负责人Ralph Winnie Jr称：“有很多中美公司可以共同合作的成功故事。这确实需要成为焦点，我们真的需要使简化签证过程更加容易。”

US travel companies have also calculated that Chinese visitors spend about one third more when they come to the United States than the average.
美国旅游公司也做了计算，中国游客到美国时，在美国的时间比平均水平高出三分之一左右。

Reporter: “This presents a significant incentive for the US to consider not just improvements but also reforms to its complex visa and immigration systems.”
记者：“这对美国来说是一个考虑改善并且改革其复杂的签证、移民系统的巨大诱因。”