Some (military) spouses subject to new security checks

[lebkuchen]

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=19742

The new rules rankled at least a few. Fingerprinting or photographing South Koreans sends a bad message to a country allied with the United States, said the 1st Signal Brigade’s 1st Lt. Andrew Tiches, who recently married a South Korean citizen.

Terrorists haven’t been identified as originating from South Korea, he said. “It’s hard for me to believe that fingerprinting and taking pictures of Korean nationals and other countries that have no clearly defined Muslim extremist activity” will thwart terrorists, he said. “It makes no sense.”

Tiches said his wife, Youngae, just received her U.S. visa Monday after starting the process in September. He said the process was painstaking: He e-mailed and faxed the U.S. Embassy almost every other day to check on her application’s status. Luckily, Tiches said, his boss was forgiving and let him make frequent trips to the embassy.

Embassy officials told him the visa took so long because of new Department of Homeland Security processes, Tiches said. Few officials were able to answer questions, he said. “It’s a very discouraging process because it’s not clearly defined,” Tiches said.