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Compiled By Jordan Bowles

DEERFIELD BEACH, FL, Fri. May 17th, 2019: Over 42,000 Caribbean nationals from across the region overstayed their non-immigrant visas and stayed on in the US between October 2017 and September 2018.

That’s according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s 2018 “Fiscal Year Entry/Exit Overstay Report.” The US overstay data for the last fiscal year takes into account all foreign nationals who entered a US port legally using a temporary visitor, business or student visa or as part of the visa waiver program.

“An overstay,” is defined as “a nonimmigrant who was lawfully admitted to the United States for an authorized period but stayed in the United States beyond his or her authorized admission period.” DHS classifies individuals as overstays by using the ADIS system to match departure and status change records to arrival records collected during the admission process and further identifies nonimmigrant status through manual vetting processes to support possible enforcement action.

These are the top 10 nations in the Caribbean with the most US visa overstays for the last fiscal year:

1.) Dominican Republic -14,641

2.) Jamaica -10,626

3.) Haiti – 6,917

4: Guyana – 3,220

5.) Cuba – 1,868

6.) The Bahamas -1,545

7.) Trinidad and Tobago -811

8.) Barbados -757

9.) Belize – 603

10.) St. Lucia -318

Overall, the US DHS said there were 666,582 overstays from around the world.