US embassy cable - 05VILNIUS1242

UNCLAS VILNIUS 001242 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/NB, CA/P - DHEIEN AND JWECHSLER 
ALSO FOR CA/VO/F/P - EPATTERSON AND CKAGARISE 
FRANKFURT FOR RSC - RCO RBROWN 
COPENHAGEN FOR DHS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CMGT, CVIS, KFRD, CASC, LH, HT43 
SUBJECT: LITHUANIA'S VISA WAIVER ROADMAP: COOPERATION AND 
REPORTING LOST/STOLEN PASSPORTS 
 
REFS: A) VILNIUS 1226 (NOTAL), B) STATE 208035 (NOTAL), C) 
VILNIUS 0767 (NOTAL), D) VILNIUS 0718 (NOTAL), E) 04 STATE 
114932 
 
1. This is an action request--see paragraphs 5 and 6. 
 
2. Post has held more than a dozen informal meetings on Visa 
Waiver Roadmap (VWR) issues since the last two formal 
Consular Working Group meetings in July (refs C and D). 
Post and the MFA have also made significant progress on 
joint VWR public outreach (refs A and B). Other cooperative 
efforts included a training/familiarization visit by post 
fraud prevention staff and regional consular officer to the 
Border Police forensic document lab and Border Police 
operations at Vilnius airport on October 17. Post was also 
invited along with other diplomatic representatives to a 
November 4 briefing on current trends in counterfeit 
Lithuanian identity documents. 
 
3. The Lithuanians view their November 7-9 MFA delegation 
visit to Washington (ref B) as a successful opportunity to 
showcase their VWR efforts, and hope to build on their 
positive results to date. The MFA is particularly pleased 
that they were able to obtain last-minute appointments with 
the Bureau of Consular Affairs and with the Department of 
Homeland Security focusing on their work with biometric 
documents. 
 
4. Seeking to fulfill their VWR commitments, the MFA has 
requested guidance on the best way to provide data on 
lost/stolen passports (LSP). Since October 2004, the 
Ministry of Interior, which issues passports and tracks LSP 
data in Lithuania, has reported through Interpol. While post 
has apprised the MFA of the procedure for bulk entry of LSP 
data into CLASS outlined in SOP 38 (ref E), the GOL has not 
yet provided such data directly to post. The MFA points out 
that the GOL has no precedent for reporting this data to a 
single government, e.g. the USG, and would therefore have to 
establish procedures specifically for this purpose. 
 
5. Action request: Post and MFA seek clarification on 
whether such submissions via Interpol would suffice to meet 
VWP obligations or if they should also report by another 
means. 
 
6. In addition, the MFA has confirmed its request for 
consular training assistance (ref B).  Our interlocutors 
appreciate the prior observation opportunities offered to 
them, and would like to have more in-depth experiences. 
Specifically, the MFA seeks to (1) observe and absorb the 
American consular service mentality and (2) incorporate 
applicable concepts and techniques into Lithuanian training. 
According to the MFA, the optimal outcome would be for two 
or three persons, including one from the GOL Migration 
Department, to observe various consular training sessions, 
most likely at NFATC, for up to one week. 
 
KELLY