YEREVAN,DECEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. As of December 18, 10 400 people have applied to the U.S. Embassy in Armenia for receiving U.S. non-immigrant visa. This index is almost the same in comparison with that of the previous year. This statement was made by Robin Busse, the Consul of the U.S. Embassy in Armenia. According to him, the number of applicants has decreased since 1999, and has become stable for the past two years. Robin Busse also mentioned that approximately 60% of the applications for receiving non-immigrant visa has been rejected for the past ten years. According to him, by the U.S. Law on Immigration, any person applying for visa is considered a potential immigrant. In his words, the aim of conducting interviews is to find out the stable relations and circumstances of the applicant, that is personal, financial-economic, real estate property, to name but a few, which will make him/her return. However, in the words of Robin Busse, "they take into consideration the consciousness of the person." That is to say, the applicant may have a profitable job but not be able to present the aim of his journey in a convincing way. The Consul admits that sometimes they also make mistakes, however, he is sure that they mainly make right decisions. Robin Busse also mentioned that the number of the RA citizens, who break the terms of the visa and stay in the United States of America longer or do not return at all, is not small.

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