E3only

Hey there

http://travel.state.gov/content/dam/...saCategory.pdf

If I look at the first line, A1 visa as an example....What does the Waived/Overcome mean? Does that have anything to do or related to "refused"?

Trying to figure this out - if the total applications are 13,001..of which 2,389 were refused...meaning a 18 percent decline rate...1 in 5. Wondering if that is right or the 2,246 of the waived/overcome needs to be considered.

Thanks so much.

EDIT:

Actually let me edit. I wanted statistics by visa class. # applications, #denied etc. So I googled it to find this link. So using this link, let's use A1 as an example...18% denied so I started thinking 1 in 5 declines sounds high (of course I don't know anything about what is average etc. Just curious)

Pulaski

Per that table the third column is the sum of the first two: Issued + Declined = Workload. Scanning down the table, it looks as if about 20%-25% of applications for most visa classes are declined, which sounds about right to me.

I would guess that the Waived/Overcome figure, which is part of the issued number, is those for which there was an issue for which a waiver was required, the issue was "overcome", and the visa issued. As a waiver takes a number of months, often crossing a year end, it would distort the data if you had a separate column that was added in to the Workload column, because you'd be including applications from last year in this year's workload.

E3only

Thanks. Taking E3 as an example, has approx 20 percent decline rate yet, if we take out overcome or waived it will be sub 3-5 percent. I wonder why such a big gap. Are they counting admin processing is declines.

Pulaski

I think you're misreading the numbers. The "Declined" number is those who were actually declined - "Declined" is the end result.

The end result is always either "Approved" or "Declined", with waivers been processed into one of the two possible end results.

ETA If you try to apply your logic to rows T2 and T3, you end up with a negative number!

E3only

Thanks. The negative numbers in T2, T3 probably because of year mis-match.

I would think to arrive at the true rate of approval, the overcome/waived need to be netted to Declines?

I don't know why but I think a 20% decline rate (as a final decision) sounds high.

Oh well.

Pulaski

No. The third column is the sum of the first and the second. The fourth is not part of the equation and cannot be added or subtracted from any other column to get any useful information, if it made sense to do so the table would have a fifth column. But it sounds like we will have to agree to disagree on that point.

And by necessity, if you need a visa there is a good chance that America isn't going to like you, so I don't consider a 20% rejection rate at all unlikely. Bear in mind that 25% of the British population have some sort of criminal record, which is going to automatically disqualify a very large proportion of that 25%, including almost everyone with any sort of drug conviction.

In fact, on thinking about it, if you're British and need a visa it wouldn't surprise me if the rejection rate is over 50%. Even among those British citizens just fancy a longer stay than 90 days, they are very commonly rejected, apparently just because America prefers that they use the VWP.

E3only

I don't know if these guys a reputable but found this...

Some Visa Categories Are More Vulnerable than Others | Center for Immigration Studies

These guys are netting Waived/Overcome against declines.

Pulaski

I am beginning to wonder if it really matters, at least to me.

E3only

Haha yup

Your care factor on this probably is zero !