The United States Embassy in Barbados has announced interview visa waivers for qualified citizens of St. Vincent and the Grenadines as of today, Wednesday, a courtesy from which SVG and Dominica were omitted more than two years ago.
The embassy said that the waiver is part of the United States Government’s continuing efforts to facilitate travel with their Caribbean partners, improve customer service during the COVID-19 pandemic, and streamline the visa renewal process.
“Passport holders from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with the exception of beneficiaries of the citizen by investment programmes, may qualify for a visa renewal interview waiver if their previous visa expired within the past two years and they are applying for the same visa category as their previous visa.”
The applicant must be physically present in their home country or within the consular district of the U.S. Embassy in Barbados to avail themselves of this option.
The consular district comprises of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Martin (French), and SVG.
Additionally, the previous U.S. visa must be in the applicant’s possession, and the applicant must have submitted a 10-fingerprint scan in conjunction with the previous visa application.
Students who wish to renew their visas, and who satisfy the aforementioned requirements may qualify for interview waiver if they are applying to continue attendance at the same institution, or will continue the same major course of study at a different institution.
Applicants seeking to renew work-related visas who are returning to work for the same employer/company as annotated on the previous visa may also qualify. Applicants under the age of 14 and over 79 will continue to qualify for interview waiver in most visa classifications.
Applicants who acquired SVG citizenship via an economic citizenship programme and all third country nationals will still be required to schedule visa interviews for visa renewals.
Eligibility for interview waiver does not automatically entitle applicants to a waiver of the interview requirement, the embassy said.
Meeting the general qualifications for visa renewal interview waiver does not guarantee that an applicant will not be requested to present him or herself in person for an interview at the embassy.
For general information, see the Nonimmigrant Visa section of the Embassy’s website, or to begin the process to determine if you qualify for interview waiver, click this link.
The only reason this has happened is because the Americans do not want the multi COVID infected Vincentians to come to their embassy contaminating their staff and other clients.