US denies 64 percent of Uzbek visa applications

In 2024, the United States denied 64.41 percent of B1/B2 visa applications submitted by citizens of Uzbekistan, according to a report published by the US State Department.

The denial rate applies to B1 (business) and B2 (tourist) visas. This figure is 4.85 percentage points higher than in 2023, when the refusal rate stood at 59.56 percent.

Visa refusal rates for other Central Asian countries were as follows:

- Turkmenistan — 58.80 percent
- Kazakhstan — 46.29 percent
- Tajikistan — 45.24 percent
- Kyrgyzstan — 39.14 percent

High refusal rates were also recorded in Armenia (59.46 percent), Canada (56.35 percent), and Iran (55.54 percent). In contrast, much lower rates were observed in France (8.50 percent), Germany (10.02 percent), Japan (5.76 percent), and particularly in the United Arab Emirates, where the refusal rate was just 1.46 percent.

Globally, the highest refusal rates were reported in Laos (82.84 percent), Somalia (77 percent), and Mauritania (70.07 percent).

Among CIS countries, the refusal rates were:

- Russia — 38.56 percent
- Belarus — 28.79 percent
- Azerbaijan — 21.46 percent
- Ukraine — 33.45 percent

It is also noteworthy that, starting from June 21 this year, applicants for F, M, or J nonimmigrant visas are now required to set the privacy settings of all their social media accounts to "public" as part of the application process