re: "State Looks to Hire "Foreign Service Consular Adjudicators" "

No Double Standards at Muttering Behind the Hardline ("Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit") notes a recent development.

Money quote(s):

"(T)he Foreign Service is reaching out to the public, running an advertisement soliciting applications for 20 "Consular Adjudicator" positions for individuals with Mandarin Chinese of Portuguese?"

This doesn't mean that newly-hired FSO Generalists who know/learn Chinese and Portugese (to start) won't spend a year (or more) of their early careers conducting visa interviews and implementing the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) abroad.

This just means that the Department (generally) and the Bureau of Consular Affairs (specifically) recognizes that the number of newly-hired FSO Generalists who will be available to perform those functions (in Chinese and Portugese) is simply insufficient for the demand in these areas.

It wasn't that long ago (and the concept was resurrected recently) that there were Consular Associate positions where qualified family members worked alongside vice consuls performing nearly identical functions.

"This measure will have definite implications for consular management and for congressional perception of the consular role."

It may help consular managers to think of these Consular Adjudicators in a way similar to how the military (especially Army Aviation) handles the relationship between warrant officers and commissioned officers. Warrants are specialists in a particular technical field or function and commissioned officers are expected to move beyond that into command and leadership of larger organizations.

Part of squaring this particular circle with Congress will be treating these specialists with the respect due them.

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NDS is dealing with some tough personal issues lately. Be sure to show him some love and respect.