Caribbean countries rank highest in US visas

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts: A senior official at the United States Embassy in Barbados says Caribbean countries are ranked among the top countries in the world whose nationals have been granted visas to enter the United States of America.

United States Counsel, Mr. Robert Fretz said that last year eight percent of the population in St. Kitts and Nevis applied for a United States, "that is one out of every 12 people who you would meet on the streets of St. Kitts and Nevis."

Only Antigua and Barbuda with nine percent and the Bahamas at 10 percent are ahead of St. Kitts and Nevis. In Barbados, where the Embassy is based, only five percent of Barbadians who apply get visas.

"In most countries in the world you would not even get one percent of the population applying for a visas," said Fretz, 

Last year, the Bridgetown-based Embassy Consulate Section pulled in US$6.1 million in visa application fees last year, of which US$1.3 million came from Barbadians. The Embassy also handles affairs in St. Lucia, Dominica, Montserrat, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.

Mr. Fretz said the overwhelming majority of the money came from persons who were successful in acquiring visas to travel to the United States. 

He has said that fees were collected in 2003 from just over 13,000 of the 13,962 Barbadians who paid for their visa applications and 48,801 persons from the countries in the Eastern Caribbean and the British Virgin Islands.

He said the money collected was used to completely fund the consulate's operations in Barbados since the policy of the United States Government was that applicants should cover the cost of the service put into their applications. 

"The consulate does not cost the taxpayer a nickel. My salary, my desk, my computer, the electric bill, the water bill, the guard service, the local employees, the new carpet on the floor, that is all paid for by the fee. We don't make money, but we don't lose money," said Mr. Fretz, adding that with the application rate so high, the US$100 could not be adjusted for the region since the universal fee was determined by "time and motion" studies done across a wide range of countries. 

He dismissed reports that there were plans to raise the fee. 

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