With Friends Like …Whom?

Saudis is a scant 3 percent—justifying the existence of the Visa Express program.

Those numbers, however, are very misleading, if not outright false. According to a consular document from Riyadh, the overall refusal rate for Saudi national and third-country-national (TCN) applicants was 24 percent. The document showed a refusal rate for TCNs of 30 percent, and for Saudi nationals of over 10 percent. The CA press office vociferously denied the statistics—until, that is, it was presented with the summary of a document obtained from an unnamed source at CA. The press office now concedes—for the first time—that the overall refusal rate for Saudi nationals and TCNs is 23 percent. The only remaining point of contention is the breakdown of refusal rates for Saudi nationals and TCNs; CA still maintains that the refusal rate for Saudi nationals is 3 percent. But even if CA’s figures on Saudi nationals are correct, the bureau is still violating its own internal protocol by granting Visa Express to a country where nearly one-fourth of applicants are refused.

About the Author

John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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Saudis is a scant 3 percent—justifying the existence of the Visa Express program.

Those numbers, however, are very misleading, if not outright false. According to a consular document from Riyadh, the overall refusal rate for Saudi national and third-country-national (TCN) applicants was 24 percent. The document showed a refusal rate for TCNs of 30 percent, and for Saudi nationals of over 10 percent. The CA press office vociferously denied the statistics—until, that is, it was presented with the summary of a document obtained from an unnamed source at CA. The press office now concedes—for the first time—that the overall refusal rate for Saudi nationals and TCNs is 23 percent. The only remaining point of contention is the breakdown of refusal rates for Saudi nationals and TCNs; CA still maintains that the refusal rate for Saudi nationals is 3 percent. But even if CA’s figures on Saudi nationals are correct, the bureau is still violating its own internal protocol by granting Visa Express to a country where nearly one-fourth of applicants are refused.