US visitor visa refusal rate for applicants from The Bahamas

The US refused 14.46% of visitor (B1/B2) visa applications from The Bahamas in FY2025, so about 85.5% were approved — rank 150 of 198 nationalities, up 5.13 points on FY2019. Source: US State Department adjusted refusal rates.

FY2025 refusal rate14.46% ▲ +1.65 pts vs FY2024
Global rank#150 of 198 nationalities
vs FY2019+5.13 points, against pre-pandemic
Year-to-year swing±2.44 typical annual move

The Bahamas's adjusted refusal rate for US visitor (B) visas was 14.46% in FY2025. That ranks 150 of 198 nationalities — higher than 25% of countries. It rose 1.65 points from 12.81% in FY2024. Against FY2019, the last pre-pandemic year published, it is 5.13 points higher. Over the 18 published years its highest was 14.46% (FY2025) and its lowest 5.00% (FY2006). Within Latin America & Caribbean it ranks 29 of 33.

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 The Bahamas or for any single country. Why not.

The full published history

Adjusted refusal rate (%)0153045602006200920122015202020232025FY17–18 not published14.46%

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 The Bahamas moves. No newsletter, no marketing — just the data changing.

Closest peers by current rate

The countries whose FY2025 rate sits nearest to The Bahamas’s, either side.

CountryFY2025RankTrend
Slovenia14.57%#149
Slovakia14.33%#151
Suriname14.28%#152
Croatia14.75%#148
Brazil14.87%#147

Elsewhere in Latin America & Caribbean

How The Bahamas’s neighbours compare on the same measure.

CountryFY2025Rank
Cuba70.86%#12
El Salvador58.22%#38
Nicaragua53.15%#49
Haiti50.26%#58
Venezuela48.22%#59
Honduras46.52%#64
Jamaica44.26%#69
Grenada43.73%#70

Every published year

Fiscal yearRefusal rate Change
FY20065.00%—
FY20075.20%+0.20
FY20085.90%+0.70
FY20098.30%+2.40
FY20108.20%-0.10
FY201113.70%+5.50
FY201212.90%-0.80
FY201311.60%-1.30
FY20149.20%-2.40
FY20157.40%-1.80
FY20169.35%+1.95
FY20199.33%-0.02
FY202012.59%+3.26
FY20217.91%-4.68
FY20228.30%+0.39
FY20238.38%+0.08
FY202412.81%+4.43
FY202514.46%+1.65

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 The Bahamas?

14.46% for B1/B2 visitor visas in FY2025, according to the US State Department's adjusted refusal rate, which ranks The Bahamas 150 of 198.

Is there a US student (F-1) visa refusal rate for applicants from The Bahamas?

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.