Foreign Affairs Minister Rudy Insanally says that his Foreign Trade counterpart's snagged US visa application may have been held hostage by America's new security regulations.
"What we were told is that it is due to administrative processing," Insanally told reporters yesterday, although he said the reason was still unclear.
Minister of Foreign Trade and International Co-operation, Clement Rohee had applied for a US visitor's visa in the first week of December but learnt that his application was referred to Washington DC for approval.
Insanally noted that with the United States' added security arrangements, several agencies are now involved in the review of the processing of visa applications.
"This particular application may have been held hostage by the machinery in place..."
Insanally said the only other time that he could recall that travel visas were denied to a government official was in late 2001. At that time the US government placed a ban on the issue of immigrant or non-immigrant visas to Guyana government officials and their relatives to force the acceptance by this country of over 100 criminal deportees. The ban was lifted after the government agreed to accept the deportees.