Over 4000 legal migrate to US annually

Georgetown: Guyana’s growth rate has remained stagnant at 0.04 per year since 2002, the recently released Census report stated.

As more than 4000 Guyanese leaving for the United States permanently annually, figures released by the US Embassy in Georgetown have revealed that since 2004, it has issued 46,540 immigration visas to Guyanese. According to figures seen by this newspaper, the Embassy has been issuing an average of 4500 immigrant visas per year since 2004, with 4572 issued last year – in excess of 500 more than the previous year’s.

Noting that both applications and issuance of this type of visas has been constant, US Ambassador to Guyana, D Brent Hardt explained that there is a “congressionally mandated” limit on the number of persons that can be granted US Immigrant Visas. He further related that the limit may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and depend on the bilateral relations between the United States Government and the Government of that jurisdiction.

According to the Census findings, Guyana’s population growth rate had continued to fluctuate. It was estimated at 0.43 per cent per year during 1980-1991, 0.34 per cent between 1991 and 2002. However, this has reversed once again with negative growth for the period 2002-2012. The four Hinterland regions recorded an annual growth rate of 1.44 per cent per year while the coastal regions had a decline at the rate of -0.20.

Tripled

Meanwhile, regarding non-immigrant visas (visitor visas) Ambassador Hardt said the number of Guyanese nationals applying for this type of visas has almost tripled over the last three years. .

Ambassador Hardt said that US officials are still attempting to determine what caused the significant rise in the number of applications being processed.

However, he noted that contributory factors may include but are not limited to more competitive air fares owing to a number of airlines operating the Georgetown/New York route and also increased business opportunities. He said too that the increase is a sure sign of enhanced bilateral ties between the US and Guyana which will positively impact both countries.