But there are often complaints about the difficulty of getting visas.

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The facility has 450 employees now, nearly all American, thanks to the difficulty of getting visas for Indians, and the plan is to increase their number to 1, 000.

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U.S. Travel puts forward a three-pronged approach to welcoming international travelers to the United States: promoting the U.S. to international visitors, easing the process for getting visas and making the entry experience a smooth one.

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Getting visas for professionals, too, is harder.

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The Salvation Army, for example, which feeds around 6, 000 hungry Russians every month in the winter, has had to waste tens of thousands of dollars in legal fights over registration, and the Catholic church has had trouble getting visas for its foreign clergy.

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Paul Jacobs, the company's boss, complains about high corporate-tax rates and the difficulty of getting immigrant visas for foreign-born engineers and scientists, but maintains that America is not about to be superseded as a centre for innovation.

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The program is attracting mostly international students who believe it will provide a route to the U.S. Here, too, there have been holdups: delays in obtaining visas and getting approval for student loans.

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"The biggest challenge so far was finding out just how to go about getting bikes into Russia, all the paperwork I might need such as passports, visas and insurance, " he said.

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