Overview
Security screening reduces risk in several situations such as airport security, employee selection and visa application processes; however, it can create delays that deter normal applicants and thus, decrease the welfare of the approver (authority, manager, and screener). This research studies trends in two data sets including US visa applicant profiles from 2008 to 2013. One data set contains over 9,500 data points of information such as visa type, academic major and waiting time that we use to understand the visa application process more thoroughly. The second data set is the US government travel website with statistics of visa issuances, by year, visa type and region. We compare the two data sets to provide insight into the visa screening process. We show that the number of applicants increases at the beginning of each academic semester, visa type generally does affect wait time, wait times for most academic majors depends on the number of data points observed, and the probability of waiting greater than 60 days for a visa notification decreases as the number of applicants increases.
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