Visa Issues : It Is Not Easy for an International Patient to Get the Visa in Many Countries

Visa issues : It is not easy for an international patient to get the visa in many countries.

As we know since September 11, The US has experienced a sharp decline in international visitors, especially visitors from Middle East and Middle Eastern patients are a very important source for Mayo clinic. It is more difficult and takes much longer time than before. Currently it takes at least one month for a regular visa applicant to get the visa if everything is ok, but if additional processing is required , he has to wait for another one or two months for the visa. A visa applicant need prepare a lot of paperwork and spend a long time waiting for the visa and if denied in the end , he may be easily discouraged. For an international patient if he could not get the visa or would not like to wait for too long , possibly he goes to local hospitals to see a doctor or other countries for health care. For international students and exchange visitors, if they can not get the visa , also it is a big loss for Mayo clinic,because they are an important part for Mayo international marketing strategy. At present nearly 2900 physicians from outside the US have been trained and go back to practice medicine and provide quality health care for the local people in more than 70 countries around the world. The table below indicates a large number of international visa applicants were rejected in the last two years .

Nonimmigrant Visa Workload

Fiscal Year 2004

Visa Category Issued Refused Total Applicants Refused/Total Applicants %

B1 53,530 15,787 69,317 23.00

B1/B2 2,356,550 1,195,136 3,551,686 33.65

B2 279,961 152,911 432,872 35.32

F1 218,898 92,599 311,497 29.72

F2 18,893 6,769 25,662 26.48

J1 254,504 35,248 289,752 12.16

J2 27,875 4,433 32,308 13.68

Nonimmigrant Visa Workload

Fiscal Year 2005

Visa Category Issued Refused Total Applicants Refused/Total Applicants %

B1 52,649 16,578 69,227 23.95

B1/B2 2,709,468 1,166,714 3,876,182 30.10

B2 245,816 131,555 377,371 34.86

F1