1.   Because the program eliminates the need to obtain a visa, visitors under the program avoid the pre-screening that consular officers normally perform on visa applicants.

2.   He said companies can sponsor visa applicants only if they cannot find a qualified American, and the softening economy made that claim unsupportable.

3.   Humiliation often starts closer to home, at an American consulate, where visa applicants are made to stand for hours like mendicants in a soup line.

4.   In July, Benette had passed her eighth anniversary as an visa applicant.

5.   In most cases, visa applicants would have the chance to offer compelling cases for longer stays.

6.   Kenya requires a nontourist visa applicant to have a return or onward ticket, so this was out.

7.   Technological advances should allow for all visa applicants to be fingerprinted and checked by the FBI, he said.

8.   The Bush administration also said it plans to scrutinize student visa applicants whose academic interests are in what it considers sensitive fields of science or technology.

9.   The government will meld certain databases of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, to help in screening visa applicants and foreigners entering the United States.

10.   The Kennedy-Brownback bill would simply require special scrutiny for student visa applicants from those countries.