39,000 Guyanese applied for U.S. visas in 2015 – Ambassador

February 8, 2016 10:32 am Category: Business, latest news A+ / A-
…over 4,900 persons granted permanent resident status

The boom in Guyana’s economy over the past years has been touted as one of the reasons for the increased issuance of non-immigrant (visitors&rsquo visas to the United States to Guyanese.

US Ambassador Perry Holloway
U.S. Ambassador, Perry Holloway
This is according to United States Ambassador to Guyana Perry Holloway.

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

According to Holloway, the visas processed have been increasing over the last 10 years. For 2015, a total of 39,000 Guyanese were interviewed for non-immigrant visas, and way more than half of that number received visas.

“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 told the Guyana Times newspaper in an interview, while pointing out that “the number has gone up”.

He said five years ago, the number of applicants was about 6,000. Therefore, for the numbers to leap from 6,000 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 7,500 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 we believe they 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 visa, the Ambassador said this has been relatively stable over the last five years or so.

“It is somewhere between 4,300 and 4,900 every year. Last year was a little over 4900,” he said.