The Center for Seafarers' Rights of the Seamen's Church Institute of New York & New Jersey has called on the U.S. State Department to exempt crew visas from a proposed November 1 increase in visa application fees. cost of visas out of reach of many seafarers and ships' operators thereby depriving crews of shore leave in the United States," said Douglas B. Stevenson, Director of the Center for Seafarers' Rights. "Most foreign merchant mariners face extended periods at sea with long work hours and in cramped living conditions without contact with their families. Denial of shore leave so severely affects the mental and physical state of seafarers that the U.S. Most shore leave is denied to merchant mariners in the United States simply because they have been unable to obtain a visa.