‘No truth to rumours about rejecting visas to Pakistani-Americans,’ clarifies embassy

• Pakistani-Americans most welcome to visit their motherland, says spokesperson.
• "Embassy continues to provide every possible consular assistance, including visas".
• State Dept asked to respond to reports about visa rejection.

WASHINGTON: The Pakistan Embassy in the United States (US) has dispelled the reports claiming that Pakistani Americans are being denied visas to visit their homeland, saying "there is no truth to the rumours". 

“This is a misinformation and disinformation”, the spokesperson for the embassy clarified.

The embassy’s clarification came following the US State Department’s press briefing wherein a question was raised regarding visas of Pakistani-Americans being rejected for travelling to their homeland.

“I’m not aware,” said US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel. “This obviously would be – if there were to any – be any issues that arise in this area, certainly would be something for Pakistani consular officials to speak to and not anything as it relates to the State Department, so we’ll just leave it at that.”

Later, a spokesperson for the embassy said that Pakistani-Americans, and other overseas Pakistanis, are most welcome to visit their motherland.

The official added that the embassy was providing every possible consular assistance, including visas, to overseas Pakistanis.

"We encourage Pakistani-Americans to visit Pakistan either on their (National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis) NICOP or get visas, if they so desire, from the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington DC or from our four Consulates General in New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles. Besides, visa requests are also processed online 24/7. Therefore, there should be no cause for concern,” the embassy added.

US monitoring cipher case closely 

Meanwhile, in the same press briefing, the US State Department reiterated that it was monitoring the situation related to the cipher case closely. 

“We consult with our congressional partners on a number of issues. I am certainly not gonna speak to something like that to specificity," the deputy principal spokesperson said while answering a question about whether US Congress had asked for an investigation into the cipher allegations.

Spokesperson Patel further added that the US was monitoring the situation closely.