US visitor visa refusal rate for Turkish applicants

The US refused 22.25% of visitor (B1/B2) visa applications from Turkey in FY2025, so about 77.8% were approved — rank 120 of 198 nationalities, up 3.06 points on FY2019. Source: US State Department adjusted refusal rates.

FY2025 refusal rate22.25% ▲ +2.47 pts vs FY2024
Global rank#120 of 198 nationalities
vs FY2019+3.06 points, against pre-pandemic
Year-to-year swing±3.24 typical annual move

Turkey's adjusted refusal rate for US visitor (B) visas was 22.25% in FY2025. That ranks 120 of 198 nationalities — higher than 40% of countries. It rose 2.47 points from 19.78% in FY2024. Against FY2019, the last pre-pandemic year published, it is 3.06 points higher. Over the 18 published years its highest was 22.25% (FY2025) and its lowest 7.00% (FY2011). Within Middle East & North Africa it ranks 14 of 20.

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 Turkey or for any single country. Why not.

The full published history

Adjusted refusal rate (%)0153045602006200920122015202020232025FY17–18 not published22.25%

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

Closest peers by current rate

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

CountryFY2025RankTrend
Vietnam22.08%#121
India22.04%#122
New Zealand21.94%#123
Sweden21.77%#124
Australia22.93%#119

Elsewhere in Middle East & North Africa

How Turkey’s neighbours compare on the same measure.

CountryFY2025Rank
Yemen67.98%#18
Iran62.44%#30
Palestinian Authority60.26%#35
Jordan56.63%#41
Algeria51.23%#55
Syria50.69%#57
Egypt47.61%#61
Iraq39.86%#75

Every published year

Fiscal yearRefusal rate Change
FY200615.40%—
FY200715.00%-0.40
FY200811.20%-3.80
FY20099.00%-2.20
FY20109.10%+0.10
FY20117.00%-2.10
FY20128.10%+1.10
FY201310.30%+2.20
FY20147.10%-3.20
FY201513.88%+6.78
FY201613.62%-0.26
FY201919.19%+5.57
FY202017.46%-1.73
FY202113.70%-3.76
FY202219.96%+6.26
FY202320.59%+0.63
FY202419.78%-0.81
FY202522.25%+2.47

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

Questions people ask

What is the US visa refusal rate for Turkish applicants?

22.25% for B1/B2 visitor visas in FY2025, according to the US State Department's adjusted refusal rate, which ranks Turkey 120 of 198.

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

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.