Advocates calls for lower high US visa denial rate for African students

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Education and immigration advocates say African students face high denial rates when seeking visas to study in the United States, and they are pushing for changes.

Visa rejection rates are higher than elsewhere in regions of the Middle East, South America and Africa, with Africa experiencing the highest levels of disproportionate refusals, according to a Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration report released in July 2023.

“Whenever we see that sort of data for any country, let alone a region of the world, it gives us pause,” said Fanta Aw, executive director of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

Aw told VOA that NAFSA and other institutions met a few times with U.S. State Department officials in 2023 to ask questions and push for visa adjudication changes. She said an investigation still is needed to understand what is happening.

They are expected to meet again in the coming months.

“They’re very committed … and do not want to see inconsistencies in different parts. … We had conversations about staff training at the country level and consular affairs level, and we had assurances that these things are being constantly monitored,” she said.

Data collected through public records requests show that in 2022, half of the students from African countries who applied for a student visa were denied.

In 2023, the trend continued. Ethiopian students had a 78% denial rate, followed by Nigeria at 75%, Kenya at 74%, Congo at 69%, Ghana at 63%, Zimbabwe at 47%, and South Africa at 17%.

“What is the root cause here?” Aw said. “There needs to be assurance that [consular officers] on the ground are fully trained in the way they make determinations around this, that there is consistency in that. We need more visa appointment slots, because with the demand, if people are not even able to get a visa appointment, and when they get the rejection is this high, you can imagine the compounding effect of that.”

In European countries, for instance, one in 10 students was denied a visa during the same time frame.

The student visa, or F-1 visa, allows international students to enroll full time in U.S. government-certified institutions, and it is required for all international students.

“For the past few years, we’ve been tracking this,” Washington-based immigration lawyer Leon Fresco told VOA. “And we happened to notice there’s this weird African disparity here. … Is this happening by inertia? Is this happening because [U.S. officials] wanted it to happen? … We just want people to know there’s this disparity. … [And] start the process of fixing it.”