Basseterre, St Kitts, October 7, 2019 – The Federation of St Kitts and Nevis had the third-highest rate of refusal of United States B-visas by nationality among the six independent states within the OECS for traveling to the United States in 2018.
According to Yahoo Finance, St Kitts and Nevis had the seventh-highest rate of refusals of United States B-visas only by nationality, among the CARICOM member states.
St Kitts and Nevis chalked up a refusal rate of 24.98 percent for United States visas compared to 19.07 percent for Antigua and Barbuda; 19.77 percent for St Vincent and the Grenadines; 21.9 percent for St Lucia; 26.44 percent for Grenada and 37.13 percent for Dominica. In the CARICOM member states, the Bahamas, 12.51 percent; Barbados, 7.07 percent; Belize, 34.55 percent; Guyana, 70.62 percent; Haiti, 67.57 percent; Jamaica, 54.46 percent; Suriname, 8.57 percent; Trinidad and Tobago, 19.28 percent.
According to statistics, nearly 6.4 million people came to the United States on a B visa in 2017. This common visa type – B-1, for business travel; B-2, for tourism; or the combo B-1/B-2, for a bit of both – is issued for short-term travel to the US.
If you plan to attend business meetings or conferences, spend a week on vacation in Hawaii or Florida, or visit family in the US, this is the visa you’re likely to need. Not everyone requires one, of course. Citizens of 38 countries are eligible for the ESTA visas waiver system, allowing them to by-pass ordinary visa requirements for short-term business or tourist travel. They are mostly rich nations in Europe and Asia.
But despite how common the B visa is, getting one isn’t as easy as it might appear. Applicants must pay a fee, apply online, and then attend an in-person interview, where they’ll be grilled on what their plans are, where they’ll be going, and—crucially—when they plan to leave the US. Processing time from there can take as much as two months.
Even then, many people find their applications rejected. In the fiscal year 2018—which ran from October 1, 2017, through September 30, 2018—B visa applicants from around 50 countries were more likely to have their application refused than accepted.