What’s the Story with Visa Denials?

Some years ago, I traveled out of the country for an academic conference. The country was part of the European Union, so I didn’t need to obtain a visa. The entire process was easy and smooth. Until recently, I didn’t think about the complications individuals in many countries face in obtaining a visa to attend an academic conference in the U.S.—and I certainly didn’t realize that a large number of such visa requests might be denied!

Trump’s “Muslim ban” has brought wider scrutiny to immigration issues more generally. It appears that it may be creating visa problems far more widely than the seven countries originally affected.

Each year, the University of Southern California brings delegations from Africa to meet with business leaders, government officials and others in the U.S. But this year, the African summit has no Africans. All were denied visas.

Visa issues are not uncommon for people traveling from African nations. During her prior three summits, Mary Flowers saw a high percentage of her attendees at the African Global Economic and Development Summit, unable to attain visas.

“Usually we get 40 percent that get rejected but the others come,” said Flowers, chair of the African Global Economic and Development Summit. “This year it was 100 percent. Every delegation. And it was sad to see, because these people were so disheartened.”

Flowers estimated that she lost about 100 attendees, including speakers and government officials. The countries affected included Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa.

Suffice it to say, I didn’t know any of this.

With the heightened attention on foreign nationals coming to the U.S., there have been stories of more visas being denied to people from countries other than those named in the Trump administration’s executive orders. But visas are routinely denied by U.S. embassies without explanation.

If there has been an increase in the number of visas rejected under the new administration, it’s hard to verify. The publicly available State Department data dates only to late 2016.

In addition, according to The Independent:

Data by the US State Department compiled by The New York Times for the year 2015/16, shows Somalia, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania all had a visa denial rate of more than 60 per cent.

In another recent story reported by the Charleston Post and Courier:

A youth troupe from Ghana that wanted to perform in Charleston on Saturday was unable to travel here because of visa issues with the country’s U.S. Embassy, the coordinator of the trip said.

Dr. Cynthia Swenson said that American embassy officials would not consider documents supporting the youths’ visa applications, including correspondence from the United Nations where they also were scheduled to do a show.

“The children were devastated,” Swenson said. “They had letters from the U.N. and many places in Charleston.”

It seems these children’s visit was part of a partnership between Okurase, in Ghana, and North Charleston, created by a clinical psychologist in North Charleston, Dr. Cynthia Swenson, and an artist in Ghana. Children from North Charleston already visited Ghana, where they met the African children they’ve partnered with. And now, their Ghanan counterparts have been denied the ability to do the same.

The youth in Ghana live in the village of Okurase where their families eke out a living as subsistence farmers, Swenson said.

“In my opinion, this whole issue of visa denial is not about safety but about fear of people who live in poverty and that they will run away to make their fortune,” she said. “It doesn’t make a lot is sense when it’s children and serious sponsors.”

Failure to demonstrate “non-immigrant intent” is a commonly-stated reason for denial of a visitor visa, said Melissa Azallion, a local immigration attorney.

People visiting the U.S. are presumed to have “immigrant intent,” which means they want to stay forever. Visitors must prove that is not the case to receive a visa, Azallion said.

“The way they do that is by showing that that have strong family, financial and economic ties to their country. If the consular official was not convinced of that, that may have been the reason for denial,” she said.

It’s worth noting that such a policy actively discriminates against the global poor, and against those in developing countries, making it more difficult for underprivileged individuals from disadvantaged areas of the world to visit the U.S. even as part of a specific program, and with sponsors. This likely at least partially explains the high rate of visa denial from many African countries.

Has the rate of visa denial from these countries increased since Trump became president? We won’t know for certain until visa denial data from 2017 is released next year. But if nothing else, I think these stories point to our need to the reality that our nation is nowhere near as open or welcoming to the rest of the world—whether in long-term immigration or in short-term visits—as we might like to think, or as our popular image suggests.

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