Reports from the website of the US State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs has revealed that the island of Dominica is among the top Caribbean islands being refused B-1 or B-2 visa in 2022 with Antigua and Barbuda as the lowest refusal rates in the OECS for US non-immigrant visas in 2022.
According to that report, the refusal rate for Antiguan and Barbudan nationals who applied for and were refused B-1 or B-2 visas last year stands at 14.09 percent in comparison, the refusal rate for Dominica is 25 percent, Grenada – 16.58 percent, St Kitts and Nevis – 17.14 percent, St Lucia – 16.72 percent, and St Vincent and the Grenadines – 14.12 percent.
Those statistics make Antigua and Barbuda the most successful within the OECS – as far as US visitor visa approvals for last year are concerned – and also place the country among the best in the wider region.
Across Caricom, the Bahamas has an 8.3 percent refusal rate, Barbados – 6.55 percent, Belize – 26.45 percent, Guyana – 28.42 percent, Haiti – 47.12 percent, Jamaica – 30.04 percent, Suriname – 11.91 percent, and Trinidad and Tobago – 13.64 percent.
Some of the most common reasons for visa application denials include the applicant failing to convince authorities that they have strong ties in their homeland and do not intend to immigrate to the US; a perceived likelihood that the applicant will become financially dependent on the US government; and having previously been in the country illegally.
The US is home to one of the largest Antiguan and Barbudan diaspora populations and is the twin island nation’s foremost tourism source market.
Queries have been made in past years about the establishment of a US embassy in Antigua and Barbuda or another OECS territory, but US officials have previously shot down the possibility, noting the significant resources required to do so.
Currently, citizens of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, and the Grenadines are primarily served by the US Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Meantime, the United States Department of State has published a Final Rule regarding increases to certain non-immigrant visa application (NIV) processing fees for Caribbean and other visitors.
The State Department said the fee for visitor visas for business or tourism (B1/B2s and BCCs), and other non-petition-based NIVs, such as student and exchange visitor visas, increased earlier this year from US$160 to US$185.
The fee for certain petition-based non-immigrant visas for temporary workers (H, L, O, P, Q, and R categories) also increase from US$190 to US$205, the State Department said, adding that the fee for a treaty trader, treaty investor, and treaty applicants in a specialty occupation (E category) will increase from US$205 to US$315.
The fees for most non-petition-based NIVs were last updated in 2012, and certain other NIV fees were last updated in 2014.
The State Department said other consular fees are not affected by this rule, including the waiver of the two-year residency required fee for certain exchange visitors.
What a dumb story, is that really something to write a story about. There are so many important things you can write about but you guys are just to lazy to do that