... in response to INS will be kaput in March-, posted by Oscar on Dec 17, 2002other factors at work. Jr. Bush's homeland security dept will certainly be a very big inept mess. But, America elected 'em all that approved the whole sheebang and we do deserve what we all elected. However, in the State dept, there are cooler, more professional heads at work and that is how we classify and categorize countries. With the great warming of relations between Putin and the USA..I don't think things will be all that grim. We have moved into the geo-political sphere of allies with vested mutual interests and I don't expect Russians to occupy the bottom 3rd of preferred countries. Like Syria. With the new political orientations I would fully expect the relations of the US and Russia to warm-up. In truth, we need each other, and both parties realize it. Visa's and such are set by the State Dept and not by the INS...and I expect our US-Russian relations to continue to thaw. This process does take some time to implement, but just look at the progress made in 5 years. Personally, I see nothing to worry about...but there will be early bumps in the road. It will be a beaurucratic mess. But, I expect things to improve in regard to K-1's etc. for Russians. Syrians, not likely.
