The White House on Monday hailed a deal that significantly extends the length of visas for those traveling between the United States and China as a “game-changer” and a “win” that could create hundreds of thousands of jobs by 2020.
President Obama announced earlier Monday that the U.S. and China would issue travel and business visas good for up to 10 years. Students will receive five-year visas.
Under previous policy, the three types of visas were valid for just a year.
“Now, of course, that will be good for the businessmen who are going back and forth all the time,” Obama said on the opening day of a week-long trip to Asia and Australia. “But keep in mind, last year, 1.8 million Chinese visitors to the United States contributed $21 billion to our economy and supported more than 100,000 American jobs. This agreement could help us more than quadruple those numbers.”
The president’s trip to Asia is meant to promote the business ties between the U.S. and China, while also pressing the rising superpower to improve its record on human rights, among other issues.
The White House framed the visa deal as a major first step to bolstering relations between the two nations.
“This is a game-changer,” said National Security Council Senior Director for Asian Affairs Evan Medeiros.
“We see this as a really big win,” another senior administration official told reporters. “It can lead to hundreds of thousands of additional U.S. jobs by the early 2020s” as a result additional Chinese visitors. “We see this as a really big deal for the economy.”
