U.S. Embassy in Georgetown received 39,000 Visa applications in 2015

TIMES INT'L

– more than half successful – Ambassador

United States Ambassador to Guyana, Perry Holloway
United States Ambassador to Guyana, Perry Holloway

United States Ambassador to Guyana Perry Holloway in an exclusive interview with Guyana Times International disclosed that a total of 39,000 Guyanese were interviewed for non-immigrant visas, and way more than half of that number were successful in their application.

The Ambassador reckoned that the growth of Guyana’s financial system, could be one of the reasons Guyanese have been approaching the Embassy for non-immigrant visas.

According to Holloway, the number of visas processed has been increasing over the last 10 years. “So the word on the street is that nobody receives a visa or only 10 per cent receives a visa…that is not true,” he said, continuing that “the number has gone up”.

He said five years ago, the number of applicants was about 6000. Therefore, for the numbers to leap from 6000 to close to 40,000, was incredible.

“And that makes sense because the Guyanese economy has grown over the last few years; people have more disposable income and now that 9/11 is way behind us, more people want to go visit the States and we encourage Guyanese who want to go to the United States legally, or who want to go study or to do business, we encourage that,” he said.

Providing more statistics, Holloway informed that for last month alone, the Embassy interviewed 7500 Guyanese – one per cent of the country’s population. More than half of those persons, he said, were issued with their visas.

Asked if there are any instances of persons overstaying their time, Holloway said deportation has gone down significantly over the last couple of years.

“There are some people who … are turned down because they believe you might be going to work, we have not seen an increase in these incidences.”

Meanwhile, as it relates to the number receiving the immigrant or permanent visas, the Ambassador said this has been relatively stable over the last five years or so.

“It is somewhere between 4300 and 4900 every year. Last year was a little over 4900,” he said.

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