Pakistan has had a significant 40 percent drop in the number of American visas granted to its nationals under the new Donald Trump administration despite not being on the list of the US President's travel ban countries.
The number of non-immigrant US visas to Indians increased by 28 percent in March and April this year as compared to the monthly average of the previous year, according to the newly-released monthly official data. Pakistanis were issued 3,925 non-immigrant visas in April and 3,973 visas in March, 2017.
The Obama administration last year issued a total of 78,637 non-immigrant visas to Pakistanis with a monthly average of 6,553, which was 40 percent higher than the current average. Before March this year, the US state department did not release monthly breakdowns of visas and only annual figures were available. The report compared the March and April 2017 figures with monthly averages for 2016. Even in 2015, monthly average remained 6,179 as a total of 74,150 Pakistanis had been granted visas. A spokesperson of the state department said "Visa demand is cyclical, not uniform throughout the year and affected by various factors at the local and international level. Visa issuance numbers tend to increase during peak travel seasons, such as during the summer and the winter holidays, though there may be different trends at the country, nationality, or visa-category level".
Pakistan is not the only Muslim-majority country experiencing decline in non-immigrant US visas. A similar analysis of 50 Muslim majority countries reveals that number of visas issued to their nationals has also declined by 20 per cent in April as compared to their monthly country average last year, the report said.