Local News in Brief : INS Visa Mail-In Program

Federal immigration officials in Los Angeles on Monday announced a new direct-mail program aimed at streamlining the flow of visa applications and other materials, saying they hope the system will reduce lines at agency offices throughout California and other western states.

Immigration and Naturalization Service Regional Commissioner Harold Ezell and other officials suggested that the changes could reduce the number of visitors by as many as 200,000 a year at agency offices in California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii.

Under the program, aliens who previously had to show up in person to apply for temporary work visas, alien fiancee visas, relative visas and professional preferential applications must now file by mail.

“We’re guaranteeing responses within 60 days,� INS spokesman Joe Flanders said.

In Los Angeles, agency officials have been frustrated in efforts to pare crowds of immigrants who often show up in early morning hours and months before their interviews are scheduled.