Department of State Publishes 2012 Visa Refusal Statistics
The Department of State has just published its annual B visa denial statistics. This year,the big news is the marked decline in the rate of denial for Chinese visitor visa (B) applicants – from 12% in 2011 to 8.5% in 2012. This is good news for the Chinese – and the American economy.
Other high-volume countries whose citizens were also the beneficiaries of a steep decrease were India and the Philippines, where refusal rates declined from 30.1% to 24.1% and 33.8% to 23.8%, respectively. Given the usual grouping of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries as rapidly developing economic powers, one may be surprised to learn that US consular officers in Brazil deny Brazilian applicants only 3.2% of the time – a rate nearly 8 times less than India and 3 times less than China and Russia. Just last year, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano announced that Brazilians are on track to qualify for the Visa Waiver Program soon, enabling them to bypass the B visa application process altogether.
Unfortunately for nationals of the other BRIC countries, visa-free travel to the United States in the foreseeable future is not a realistic prospect.