900 days to get a US visa

Nov 10, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – US Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, Ms. Rena Bitter, was in Guyana this week (don’t know if she has left) to discuss visa issues with the US Embassy. Ms. Bitter must have been bitter at the length of waiting time it took earlier this year to get a visitor’s visa – 900 days.

That is what I read in the press release on Ms. Bitter’s visit in the Guyana Chronicle. 900 days amount to three years. So before the US Embassy reduced the waiting time recently, Guyanese had to wait three years before they could secure a non-immigrant visa to visit the US.

That must have been painful for this nation. One out of every two Guyanese has a family member or very close relative in the US. The nation of Guyana is very close to the US. This meant that in those 900 days, hundreds, maybe more than a thousand Guyanese, could not attend a funeral, wedding, birthday etc in the US.

In August, Bloomberg reported that Guyana was on top of the list of countries around the world for the waiting period to obtain a visa of any sort. Here is a list of the population of some of the countries that were below Guyana. M is for million…

Mexico – 130M

Columbia – 51M

Democratic Republic of Congo- 96M

Nigeria -211M

Argentina -46M

Kenya- 55M

Chile -19M

Can you comprehend that a country with a population of 760, 000 with half being under 18 had a waiting list longer than the countries named above? Guyana was 18 points higher than Mexico City. Yes, Mexico City where one out of every two persons must be applying for a visa.

Mexico City has a population of 9 million. Wikipedia puts the population of Georgetown as 118, 000. You do not have to use statistical analysis but commonsense to know of that 118, 000, a very small percentage applies to the US Embassy in comparison to the figure for Mexico City.

Now if the US Embassy in Georgetown had a waiting period of 900 days, then simple logic would tell you that almost half of the Guyanese population was on the waiting list. This cannot be logical. What was going on in the US Embassy?

Since it could not have been a substantial number of Guyanese comparatively speaking that were on that 900 days waiting list, then I ask the question about the US Embassy as I did about the High Commissions of Canada and the UK in recent columns. What the staff of those diplomatic missions do?

The Canadian High Commission does not offer visa services. The British High Commission does not. Given the low level of trade between those two Commonwealth countries and Guyana, then it is fascinating to know what the diplomatic staff does from Monday to Friday from morning to afternoon.

The India, Brazil and China missions in Georgetown offer direct visa issuance, so one can understand that the consular officers at those embassies are busy. So what were the staff at the US Embassy were doing when there were no visa applications processed for three years and the number of applicants in the system was small comparatively speaking again.

Obviously one of the things this year that kept the US diplomats at the Georgetown Embassy busy was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But there was no need for the Embassy to intervene to get Guyana’s support in condemning Russia. Almost 99 percent of the world’s states did not support and do not support Russia. Countries like Guyana are sure to vote against Russia while the war is still on.

I am surprised that Sarah-Ann Lynch allowed her embassy to stop processing visa applications for 900 days. Ms. Lynch has carved her name in the history books of Guyana. A giant of a diplomat, she will always be remembered by the present generation of Guyana.

She is about to leave and I repeat what I have penned several times on this page – name something after her. What that does, is it perpetuates the memory of the person forever.

If you visit the Office of the President on Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, the young kid may ask you, who is that? You will say he is one of the greatest cricketers the West Indies has produced and I mean no offence to Rohan Kanhai but I think Shiv is the greatest cricketer Guyana produced.

Ms. Lynch is about to leave. She stood as high as when the stallion meets the sun (as in Barry Manilow lingo) and she prevented the ultimate destruction of Guyana. This is a human whose worth Guyana must forever recognize. Goodbye Sarah? Each time I listen to Sara, one of my favourite songs by Fleetwood Mac, I will remember you.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not the newspaper.)

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