Over 200 St Kitts-Nevis nationals overstayed their authorized visit to US in 2018

Over 200 nationals of St Kitts and Nevis are among the over 42,000 Caribbean nationals from across the Caribbean region who overstayed their non-immigrant visas and stayed in the US between October 2017 and September 2018.

That is according to figures released by Acting Homeland Secretary, Kevin Mc Aleenan in the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DSH) fiscal year 2018 entry/exit overstay report.

According to the report, 214 nationals of St Kitts and Nevis overstayed their non-immigrant tourism/business B1/B2 visas that were granted to enter the country between October 1, 2017, and September 30, 2018. A total of 11, 764 Kittitians and Nevisians were granted entry to the United States during the period under review and were expected to leave after the time given to them to remain in the United States. The report also indicated that it has no departure records for 203 Kittitians and Nevisians, now classified as suspected in-country overstays.

The US government figures show that overall, in the wider Caribbean Community (CARICOM countries, Trinidad and Tobago has the lowest over-stay rate with the United States at 0.40 percent, followed by The Bahamas (0.475), Barbados (1.11 percent), St Kitts and Nevis (1.73 percent), Saint Lucia (1.86 percent) and Belize (1.93 percent).

Haiti, Guyana and Jamaica were the countries in CARICOM with the highest over-stay rate in the United States. The country with the highest rate in the Caribbean was Venezuela with 7.31 percent of its citizens over-staying their time in the United States while the only communist state in the Caribbean has a relatively small figure of 2.29 percent.

The top ten countries in the region with the most US visa over-stays for the last fiscal year are:

1.) Dominican Republic – 14,641

2.) Jamaica – 10,626

3.) Haiti – 6,917

4.) Guyana – 3,220

5.) Cuba – 1,868

6.) The Bahamas – 1,545

7.) Trinidad and Tobago – 811

8.) Barbados – 757

9.) Belize – 603

10.) Saint Lucia – 318

Overall, the DHS stated that there were 666,582 overstays from around the world. The report also outlines that DHS and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are working towards biometric exit technology implemented to cover more than 97 percent of departing commercial air travellers within the next four years.

As of September 2018, 15 US airports were utilising facial-recognition technology to verify visitors as they exit the country. The pictures are matched to existing images from passport applications, visa applications or interactions with agents at prior border locations to identify the traveller and enable CBP to determine whether the traveller has complied with terms of admission or if they have overstayed.

At present, CBP has utilised facial recognition on more than two million passengers on over 15,000 flights and has verified 7,000 of those visitors who have over stayed their visas. Without the facial-recognition system, this kind of check is done with biographic manifest data, such as name and passport number.

According to DHS, the biometric system has a match rate of 98 percent. Due to this success, CBP has received, “Many commitment letters from airport authorities and/or air carriers supporting biometric exit operations.” CBP is also conducting testing to identify passengers crossing borders in vehicles utilising facial-recognition technology.”