Which Nationalities Overstay Their U.S. Visas?

The Department of Homeland Security annually releases figures on people who overstay their visas and other legal forms of admissions in the United States. Total overstays for the fiscal year of 2023 stood at 510,400 people. African nations led in terms of overstayers in comparison to total visitors, with some rates hinting at 30-50 percent who don't return. High shares of overstayers also came from Haiti, Myanmar and Laos as well as Yemen, Bhutan and Turkmenistan.

Latin Americans were less likely to overstay their U.S. visas in relative terms, with Venezuelans the biggest overstayers at 9.3 percent of admissions. However, as Latin Americans are entering the United States with visas in higher numbers, their overstayers form the biggest group in total. In FY 2023, this pertained to around 52,000 Mexicans, 43,000 Colombians and almost 22,000 Dominicans and Brazilians each. In relative terms, Mexicans only overstayed their visas 1.7 percent of the time. This was even lower for Indians, the seventh biggest group in absolute terms, at 1.4 percent.