When you hear your family, neighbors or co workers talk about going to the US Embassy in Belmopan for a visa, it is often with a sense of dread. And that's because everyone fears being turned down.
And, statistics for the 2018 fiscal year show that - in fact - you have a one in three chance of being refused. Published figures show that the US Embassy refused 34.55% of Belizean visa applicants. This is better than Guatemala, Honduras and Salvador where more than half of all applicants were turned down. In Honduras, the refusal rate was actually 60%. But Belize's refusal rate was surely not as good as Costa Rica or Panama where only one in ten applicants was turned down.
Yesterday, a senior consular officer told us Belize's refusal rate was about average:..
Sean Boshard, Consular Officer US Embassy, Belmopan
"The number is much higher for approvals that denials and I've heard some rumors that that is not the case, but it is the case. We approved many more visas than we actually do deny and we are getting more applicants on a yearly basis."
Notably, Jamaica has a visa refusal rate of more than 50%, while Barbados has a refusal rate of less than 10%.
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