Samoa's attorney general Brenda Heather-Latu says the new permit requirement for U.S. Nationals from American Samoa to enter the Independent State has not affected visitors' numbers in Apia.
Mrs Heather-Latu says this year, visitor arrival numbers from American Samoa to Apia have averaged one thousand three hundred visitors a month.
She says the numbers clearly show that the recent permit requirements have not fundamentally affected the movements of people here to Apia.
However she admits the current red tape has made the process a lot more complicated.
