Q: I applied for a non-immigrant visa to visit my aunt in the United States and the officer told me I did not qualify. I don’t understand this. The officer did not review my documents. How do I appeal this decision?

A: There is not an appeal process for non-immigrant visa applications. The US Department of State supports the decisions of visa officers primarily because the officers undergo rigorous and extensive training. Before interviewing applicants, officers are trained by the US Department of State on immigration law, interviewing skills, and technological systems used in our offices. At the conclusion of this training, officers are commissioned by the president of the United States to perform their consular activities.

These officers are tasked to facilitate legitimate travel for qualified applicants, while also identifying applicants who do not qualify under US immigration law. As a check, supervisors in our office routinely review cases to ensure that the law is being properly applied. While supervisors perform this type of quality control, they cannot review cases for appeals.

Applicants who do not qualify for a US visa are provided a letter that explains the Immigration and Nationality Act and answers several common questions. As stated in the letter, applicants must demonstrate that they do not intend to immigrate to the United States. This includes showing strong family, social, or economic connections, as well as proof that the individual intends to stay in the United States temporarily. Officers also evaluate whether individuals will use their visa for the purpose intended, such as visiting, working, or attending school. Since the 1950s, the US government has applied this principle of immigrant intent to applicants at every embassy around the world.

Applicants are invited to reapply for a visa if they believe that their situation has significantly changed from a previous interview, or if they have new information to present to an officer. We recognise that there is a cost to reapply, so we encourage you to make sure that there is a change or new information. Without this, the officer is bound to uphold the previous decision provided by other officer(s), each of whom acts as a representative of the US government.

We often get questions about limits for visa issuances. There is no limit on the number of non-immigrant visas that we can issue. In fact, US Embassy Kingston often ranks high among other embassies in terms of the number of visas that we issue each year. In 2009, we issued over 40,000 visitor’s visas. The US Embassy in Kingston issued over 1,000 student visas, over 2,000 employment visas, and over 3,000 student work and travel visas. Consular officers understand the strong demand for visas to travel to the United States and do their best to meet that demand. The best statistic that the embassy can provide is the estimated wait time for a non-immigrant, visitor visa appointment, which is currently four days.

There are numerical limits for immigrant visas, and these limits are set by the United States government. Immigrant visas allow family members of legal permanent residents and US citizens to immigrate to the United States. Information on eligibility and timelines for immigrant visas are available at the US Citizenship and Immigration Service’s website, www.uscis.gov under the heading “Family.”

Consular officers take their jobs very seriously. Their goal is to respectfully review applications, weigh the merits of each case, and determine whether or not an applicant has met the requirements of US immigration law. When officers are commissioned by the president, they bind themselves to apply and uphold this law. This means that some applicants will not qualify for visas. However, as the statistics cited above show, consular officers work hard to make sure that qualified applicants are able to travel to the United States to work, travel, and study.

The American Embassy staff in Kingston will answer any questions you may have regarding US consular law, regulations and/or practice. In order to respect the privacy of applicants, the embassy will not answer questions on specific personal applications.

Send your questions to: editorial@jamaicaobserver.com and we will send them to the embassy.