Dear Editor,
A few days ago Bryan Hunt was inviting Guyanese to apply for visas to “visit our wonderful country.” I find this rather galling because as far as I am concerned the US embassy is just looking for many more opportunities to ‘relieve’ Guyanese of their ‘pennies.’ Apparently they are not getting enough money from us! There are many US citizens who have come to live and work in Guyana and when they come here they do not have half the hassle that Guyanese have to simply get a visitors’/transit visa to pass through the US or go there for a two week vacation. It is a reality that to get to many European countries or even right next door to Brazil, it is less costly and less time-consuming to transit via the US. Unfortunately, one cannot even be granted permission to pass through the US to get to another country for work related purposes.
I am a well-respected citizen of Guyana. On three occasions within the space of 13 years I applied for a US visa for valid reasons and each time I was turned down. The first time, as a university student, I was told that I did not have ties that would cause me to return home. The last two times I was given no specific or valid reason, but a sheet of paper with several reasons indicating that one or more of them was the reason that I was denied.
I am also a highly qualified and well-paid professional with a good job. There is no reason why I would leave my beloved country (where I am a boss) to go and hide away in the US (where I would be an ‘oss’), where I would have to live in fear of being caught and deported or where I would not be guaranteed a job paying even half as much as I get right now.
Guyana may have been a struggling country for quite a number of years but I have voted for change and I am going to stay right here to see and benefit from the change I voted for. It is funny though, how many people who have no intention of returning get through on their first try and others who apply to go, with no intention of having their clean police record marred, get turned down. Since I have no desire or inclination to become an illegal immigrant in a country that has legalized ‘gay’ marriage, I will use the $32,320 needed to apply for a US visa and add some more money to that to go to other beautiful countries around the world where I would not be suspected or treated as a conniving person with evil intentions.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)