3,320 Guyanese overstayed in U.S. from Oct. 2017 – Sept. 2018

A total of 3,320 Guyanese who visited the United States for various purposes from October 2017 to September 2018 overstayed their time.

This was 975 more than the 2,345 persons who overstayed their time the year before.

According to the US Department of Homeland Security’s 2018 Entry/Exit Overstay Report, there were 3,220 or 4.85% of the persons who entered the US for business or pleasure and did not leave the country. Of that amount, 3,065 are suspected to be staying in the country while 155 are out-of-country overstays.

Of those of who overstayed, 45 were students or exchange visitors while 55 were visiting for other reasons.

The report defined an overstay as a nonimmigrant who was lawfully admitted to the United States for an authorized period but stayed in the United States beyond his or her authorized admission period.

In 2017, the report stated that 2,262 or 3.29% of the persons granted visas for business or pleasure did not depart through the various ports while 28 granted students or exchange visitor visa overstayed in the country. An added 55 persons who fell in the other in-scope classes overstayed.

The Fiscal Year 2018 Entry/Exit Overstay Report prepared by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security provides data on expected departures and overstays, by country, for foreign travellers to the United States who entered as nonimmigrants through an air or sea port of entry (POE) and who were expected to depart in between October 1, 2017 – September 30, 2018.

Persons who would have legally extended their stay are not calculated in the report.

While Guyana’s cases have increased, the Department said for the second year in a row, visa overstay rates have declined.

In total, the Department determined that there were 54,706,966 in-scope nonimmigrant admissions to the United States of persons expected to depart during the prescribed period.

Of this number, it calculated a total overstay rate of 1.22 percent or 666,582 overstay events.

In other words, 98.78 percent of the in-scope nonimmigrant entries departed the United States on time and in accordance with the terms of their admission.