DR VISAs for US travel.

P

PR Loves DR

Guest
Does anyone know why it is so hard for citizens from the DR to get travel VISAs to the US? Is this due to restrictions of the DR government, or the US? When did these changes occur? Or has it always been like this?
 
A

AlterEgo

Guest
USA makes the determination. So many are denied because so many Dominicans came/come on tourist visas and never leave. Makes it much more difficult to get the visa.
 
D

Derfish

Guest
Does anyone know why it is so hard for citizens from the DR to get travel VISAs to the US? Is this due to restrictions of the DR government, or the US? When did these changes occur? Or has it always been like this?

It isn't really much different than for people from Colombia or Panama or Central America in general. So many have arriven in the USA on a tourist permit and then plan to stay. And Yes it has always been this way, if you are extending always to the last 50 years and not the last 500 years.
 
P

PR Loves DR

Guest
USA makes the determination. So many are denied because so many Dominicans came/come on tourist visas and never leave. Makes it much more difficult to get the visa.

I will admit that I'm not the world traveler that I plan on being, yet. But I was amazed to see how hard it was for a DR citizen to visit the US. Unlike me traveling from the US to the DR, where, I only had to show my passport for entry to the country.
 
D

Derfish

Guest
I will admit that I'm not the world traveler that I plan on being, yet. But I was amazed to see how hard it was for a DR citizen to visit the US. Unlike me traveling from the US to the DR, where, I only had to show my passport for entry to the country.

Within a very finite perion of time you will probably have any number of persons assure you that all you have to do to get them a visa is to write a letter and they will be able to go to the USA. But it don't work. They all have a friend or two or more who have done it, but of the dozen or more such invitation letters I have written none of them have ever worked at all. Colombia, Panama, Peru, Mexico, none of them!
 
K

KyleMackey

Guest
I will admit that I'm not the world traveler that I plan on being, yet. But I was amazed to see how hard it was for a DR citizen to visit the US. Unlike me traveling from the US to the DR, where, I only had to show my passport for entry to the country.

Yeah, people will get off of the plane in the US and they don't go back. If a DR citizen has a good job, owns their home has money, more likely to get a tourist visa to US (not viewed as much of a risk to stay).
 
P

PR Loves DR

Guest
Yeah, people will get off of the plane in the US and they don't go back. If a DR citizen has a good job, owns their home has money, more likely to get a tourist visa to US (not viewed as much of a risk to stay).

As I posted in my introductory post I have only visited the DR once and only experienced life in an AI. Are the living conditions so bad for citizens of the DR that they would just abandon their family and roots like that? Or are the hopes that they will be able to one day relocate their entire family to the US?
 
P

PR Loves DR

Guest
Within a very finite perion of time you will probably have any number of persons assure you that all you have to do to get them a visa is to write a letter and they will be able to go to the USA. But it don't work. They all have a friend or two or more who have done it, but of the dozen or more such invitation letters I have written none of them have ever worked at all. Colombia, Panama, Peru, Mexico, none of them!

How can they not understand that this is not how it works? Are their laws that convoluted, or do the people fail to properly educate themselves about the actual laws?
 
K

KyleMackey

Guest
As I posted in my introductory post I have only visited the DR once and only experienced life in an AI. Are the living conditions so bad for citizens of the DR that they would just abandon their family and roots like that? Or are the hopes that they will be able to one day relocate their entire family to the US?

For a decent % of DR citizens yeah many would leave in a NY minute. They can send money back home. Many also get some of their relatives to the US. Living conditions can be very rough as it is in many parts of Caribbean, S. America, C. America.
 
R

ROLLOUT

Guest
How can they not understand that this is not how it works? Are their laws that convoluted, or do the people fail to properly educate themselves about the actual laws?

Hmmmm............. aint' enuf time in the day to start 'splaining that one Lucy. My advice to you, my friend is to pick a subject within this forum, do a search, and start there.
 
P

PR Loves DR

Guest
For a decent % of DR citizens yeah many would leave in a NY minute. They can send money back home. Many also get some of their relatives to the US. Living conditions can be very rough as it is in many parts of Caribbean, S. America, C. America.

I wouldn't have imagined that from the outside looking in. However, I did much reading prior to going to the DR and for every sob story that I encountered I had an equally sad US story, or I discussed the truths of me starting out from humble beginnings but striving to get an education. I'm now well aware that just from being in the US my opportunities may have been exponentially greater than those of the average DR citizen.
 
K

KyleMackey

Guest
I wouldn't have imagined that from the outside looking in. However, I did much reading prior to going to the DR and for every sob story that I encountered I had an equally sad US story, or I discussed the truths of me starting out from humble beginnings but striving to get an education. I'm now well aware that just from being in the US my opportunities may have been exponentially greater than those of the average DR citizen.
Just be careful not to fall for them.
 
W

windeguy

Guest
And the odds today to get a visitor's visa to the US are reported to be much higher than they used to be.

All the burden is on the applicant to prove they will return. I know of people that have no plan to return.
 
P

playacaribe2

Guest
And the odds today to get a visitor's visa to the US are reported to be much higher than they used to be.

All the burden is on the applicant to prove they will return. I know of people that have no plan to return.

Non immigrant visas granted from the DR spiked in the years 2015-2017..........and have since declined;

https://travel.state.gov/content/da...nnualReport/FY18AnnualReport - TableXVIII.pdf

Coinciding with a new "sheriff" in town.


Respectfully,
Payacaribe2
 
C

cavok

Guest
Still a surprisingly high number of tourist visas compared to most of the years that Obama was in office.
 
R

Ricardo900

Guest
That's too bad, because worrying so much about Dominicans overstaying their visas. I've read that over 600,000 people overstayed their visas to enter the US in one year and that the figure could be around 5-6 million overstayers. Guess what I bet they are not all Dominicans or people from the Caribbean. Canadians, Brits, French, Spaniards, Grecians, Portuguese, etc. In other words, everybody does it, of course some more than others.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/08/07/dhs-foreigners-overstayed-visas-2017/924316002/
 
P

PICHARDO

Guest
Getting a US tourist B1/B2 visa for the average middle class Dominican citizen has not changed much at all in more than two decades.

Getting a US tourist B1/B2 visa for the average low income Dominican citizen also has not changed, still is a lottery win.

As per facts and figures, the DR is on the average less than 9 to 8% of visa overstayers, which includes those that arrived on B1/B2 visas but adjusted their status via marriage, work, family, etc... The rest are overstay violators.

A recent report from the DHS on the countries that abuse the visas was published recently as the new administration has put new restrictions on those which have a high rate of overstayers. The DR is not in that group, never was.


Some data here:
https://travel.state.gov/content/tr...l-reports/report-of-the-visa-office-2017.html


The ones having a hard time getting US visas will continue to have the same problem, unless their economic conditions change.