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Hostess struggles to get visa in wake of buttock lawsuit

A China Airlines flight attendant said she suspected that she may have been denied a visa to the US after she lodged a charge of sexual harassment earlier this year against a US passenger she accused of touching her buttocks.

On April 25, a US passenger named Noel Kaylor, who was a visiting associate professor at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, sat on a seat designated for flight attendants. When the flight attendant, surnamed Kuo, urged Kaylor to return to his seat, he allegedly touched her buttocks five or six times and told her this was how he would feel if he went back to his seat and collided with other passengers.

Kuo lay a charge of sexual harassment against Kaylor, who was fined NT$3,000 in July.

Kuo described the ruling as ridiculous and lodged an appeal. In the second trial, the case was settled on an agreement that Kaylor should pay NT$150,000 compensation.

With her US crew member transit visa set to expire, Kuo applied for a new visa in August.

During her interview at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Kuo said, her interviewer glanced at her application and left without asking her any questions. Two hours later she received a denial notice. According to the notice, the main reason she was denied a visa was that the AIT could not confirm that Kuo was suitable for her position as a crew member.

Kuo’s fellow flight attendants speculated this might have had something to do with her legal wrangle with the US passenger, she said.

Contacted by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) on Oct. 26, AIT spokesman Thomas Hodges said the institute would look into the matter, adding that the AIT handled all visa applications with care in accordance with US law.

Earlier this month, after negotiations between the airline and the AIT, Kuo was allowed to reapply for a US visa, which she did obtain — again without going through an interview.
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