US Chief of Mission Amy Diaz says the issuance of visas to foreigners is aimed at ensuring America’s territorial integrity and making sure that people are being vetted appropriately before being allowed entry.
Her remarks followed the suspension of student visa issuance by U.S. Embassies across the globe last week.
This comes in the wake of of some top Malawian government officials being denied visas to the US to attend the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings last month.
Commenting on the development in the sidelines of the 249th US Independence Day Anniversary celebrations, Foreign Affairs Minister Nancy Tembo disclosed that Malawi is yet to receive any official communication regarding the issue.
“All I can say is they reserve the right not to allow anybody to their country. We have not received any official communication from the United States Government; we’ve not heard that they have extended the ban on students’ visa to everybody, that we’ve not heard. We’re yet to check with the US Embassy and so I’ll not be able to comment as of now.”
Chief of Mission Amy Diaz took time to clarify on the matter and was quick to assure that this may be resolved soon.
“Unfortunately Malawi has had a very high overstay rate and it’s been particularly high with diplomatic and official passport holders, and so I think and across the world, what’s happening is they’re asking us to look at numbers ensure that we’re really vetting very well and making sure that we can continue to have all these students studying in the United States.
“I’m very hopeful that this will not be a long pause, I hope this will just be a short pause, because we really do want students from around the world and particularly Malawian students to come join us in the United States.
“So give us a little time, but I’m optimistic that we’ll still see another cohort of students coming to the United States this month” she assured.
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