Let’s Connect with Ambassador Marks to Discuss Visa, Passport Matters

Let’s Connect with Ambassador Marks returns on Thursday (October 27), with discussions to focus on applying for the United States (US) visa for work, study and vacation and the Jamaican passport. 

The session will begin at 7:00 pm EDT / 6pm EST and will include face-to-face and online participants. 

Jamaica’s Ambassador to the US, Her Excellency Audrey Marks, said that Non-immigrant Visa Unit Chief in the Consular Section of the US  Embassy in Kingston,  Jeff M. Osweiler, and Chief Executive Officer of the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA), Andrew Wynter, will be on hand to respond to questions. 

Ambassador Marks said that most of the queries coming into the missions for the past year relate to visa and passport matters.  

 “We have been having overwhelming queries from Jamaicans at home and in the diaspora as it relates to students attending colleges and universities in the US, persons from Jamaica needing medical attention in the US, temporary overseas work programmes, as well as the long delay in applications for visitor visas and other services from the US embassy in Jamaica,” she pointed out. 

Ambassador Marks noted that the Embassy and the Jamaican Consular network in the US, have been working assiduously to increase customer service and efficiency in the processing of passports and citizenship applications. 

 Mr. Wynter and a team from PICA will be spending the week of October 24  to 30 in Washington DC and will execute several activities at the Embassy in keeping with this objective.  

While on Let’s Connect, Mr. Wynter is expected to address diaspora members’ questions and concerns in relation to the processing of passport applications and other services offered by PICA.  

Prominent Jamaican immigration attorney in Washington DC, Simone Williams, will be present to clarify matters relating to the different types of work visas. 

‘Let’s Connect with Ambassador Marks’ enables Jamaicans at home and abroad to communicate directly with the Ambassador about Jamaica/US bilateral matters and to stay informed about the Government of Jamaica’s policies and programmes, as well as the Embassy’s activities.  

The Jamaican Ambassador is usually joined by various guests, including government ministers, US government officials, key players in various local and international organisations, and prominent members of the Jamaican diaspora.