US may deny Pakistani officials visa over deportee row

Notification issued, but no formal orders for embassy to begin denying visas

KARACHI: The US has listed Pakistan among countries sanctioned under a State Department rule governing the refusal to process visas. The listing could result in the withholding of visas to Pakistanis, beginning with senior government officials.

The notification in the US Federal Register was published on April 22 and was effective from the same date.

The actual impact of the listing remains to be seen, as the State Department told the media that consular operations in Pakistan remain unchanged. Embassy staff, speaking off the record, also said the same.

In addition, even the notification says that only 318 visas have been rejected on the basis of the law in the last 23 years.

Pakistan joins a list of 10 nations that have been sanctioned under Immigration and Nationality Act Section 243(d) for refusing to take back deportees and other nationals.

The law requires the secretary of state to discontinue granting immigration or non-immigrant visas to a nation upon receiving notice from the Homeland Security secretary that the country has denied or is unreasonably delaying accepting a citizen, subject, national or resident of that country.

“For example, the secretary could order consular officers to discontinue granting B-1 and B-2 visas for personal travel by ministers of a foreign government, with an escalation measure that requires discontinuation of F-category student visas for members of the same foreign officials' families after 6 months, if the country remains uncooperative on removals, the notification explains.

Interestingly, eight of the ten countries on the list have been added by the Trump administration – Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone in 2017, Burma and Laos in 2018, and Pakistan and Ghana in 2019. Guyana has been on the list since 2001, and Gambia was listed in 2016.

It should also be noted that since 1996, only 318 visa applicants have been affected by this law, according to the federal register notification.

The notification also explains that during this same period, millions of applicants from affected countries have received non-immigrant visas.

It adds that there is no set formula, and the State Department has never issued a blanket refusal for visas from countries on the list.