US visitor visa refusal rate for applicants from Papua New Guinea

The US refused 10.57% of visitor (B1/B2) visa applications from Papua New Guinea in FY2025, so about 89.4% were approved — rank 165 of 198 nationalities, up 8.83 points on FY2019. Source: US State Department adjusted refusal rates.

FY2025 refusal rate10.57% ▲ +6.72 pts vs FY2024
Global rank#165 of 198 nationalities
vs FY2019+8.83 points, against pre-pandemic
Year-to-year swing±4.35 typical annual move

Papua New Guinea's adjusted refusal rate for US visitor (B) visas was 10.57% in FY2025. That ranks 165 of 198 nationalities — higher than 17% of countries. It rose 6.72 points from 3.85% in FY2024. Against FY2019, the last pre-pandemic year published, it is 8.83 points higher. Over the 18 published years its highest was 12.20% (FY2007) and its lowest 1.74% (FY2019). Within Oceania it ranks 11 of 14.

For context, across all nationalities in FY2024 the US refused 27.8% of B1/B2 applications and 41.0% of F-1 student applications. Those are worldwide figures — the government does not publish an F-1 refusal rate for Papua New Guinea or for any single country. Why not.

The full published history

Adjusted refusal rate (%)0153045602006200920122015202020232025FY17–18 not published10.57%

Get told when this changes

The State Department publishes these figures once a year with no announcement, and has skipped years entirely. We check the source daily and will email you when the number for Papua New Guinea moves. No newsletter, no marketing — just the data changing.

Closest peers by current rate

The countries whose FY2025 rate sits nearest to Papua New Guinea’s, either side.

CountryFY2025RankTrend
Maldives10.60%#164
Malta10.30%#166
Israel11.32%#163
Estonia11.33%#162
Qatar9.69%#167

Elsewhere in Oceania

How Papua New Guinea’s neighbours compare on the same measure.

CountryFY2025Rank
Micronesia (no page)100.00%#1
Palau (no page)80.00%#4
Tonga47.21%#62
Vanuatu46.88%#63
Samoa44.33%#68
Marshall Islands35.71%#89
Fiji32.83%#97
Nauru (no page)24.14%#116

Every published year

Fiscal yearRefusal rate Change
FY20069.00%—
FY200712.20%+3.20
FY20083.40%-8.80
FY20095.70%+2.30
FY20103.70%-2.00
FY20115.00%+1.30
FY20122.95%-2.05
FY20133.10%+0.15
FY20147.40%+4.30
FY20155.14%-2.26
FY201610.56%+5.42
FY20191.74%-8.82
FY20206.64%+4.90
FY20213.45%-3.19
FY20224.93%+1.48
FY20236.15%+1.22
FY20243.85%-2.30
FY202510.57%+6.72

FY2017 and FY2018 are absent because the State Department never published them.

Questions people ask

What is the US visa refusal rate for applicants from Papua New Guinea?

10.57% for B1/B2 visitor visas in FY2025, according to the US State Department's adjusted refusal rate, which ranks Papua New Guinea 165 of 198.

Is there a US student (F-1) visa refusal rate for applicants from Papua New Guinea?

No. The State Department publishes refusal rates by nationality only for B visitor visas. F-1 and H-1B refusal rates exist only as worldwide totals, so any country-specific student visa refusal rate is an estimate, not an official figure.

What does the adjusted refusal rate count?

Each applicant once per fiscal year at final status: refusals minus refusals later overcome, divided by issuances plus that net refusal count.

Source

US Department of State, Calculation of the Adjusted Visa Refusal Rate for Tourist and Business Travelers Under the Guidelines of the Visa Waiver Program, FY2006–FY2025. One PDF per fiscal year. Primary source ↗

The adjusted rate is (refusals − overcomes) ÷ (issuances + refusals − overcomes), counting each applicant once per fiscal year at final status and excluding cases that required a waiver of ineligibility. Rank, change, volatility and peer figures on this page are computed by us from that data and are not published by the government.