U.S. Embassy: Reports about Revoking Visas of 6,000 Lebanese Are Untrue

The United States' embassy in Lebanon denied in a released statement on Monday revoking the visas of several Lebanese nationals.

"Media reports claiming that the visas of 6,000 Lebanese have been recently revoked are categorically untrue,” the embassy stressed in its statement, pointing out that “visa revocation is highly uncommon, especially in Lebanon where no more than 1% of U.S. visas have been revoked over the last four years.”

It explained: “The United States State Department has broad authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act to revoke visas and this authority is most commonly exercised when subsequent to issuance of a U.S. visa, new information comes to light indicating that a visa holder may be inadmissible for entry into the United States or otherwise ineligible for a U.S. visa.”

The embassy assured that when a visa is revoked, it makes “all attempts to notify its holder of the revocation and, when possible, to physically cancel the visa.”

“Due to the confidentiality of visa records, the embassy cannot provide information on individual cases,” it noted.

LBCI television had reported on Saturday that the U.S. visas of many Lebanese nationals were revoked.

The TV referred in its report to the cases Lebanese businessmen Khaled al-Rifai and Samer Hallab, whose visas were “revoked.”

Meanwhile, the president of the American Lebanese Chamber of Commerce Salim Zeenni told the same source that “up to 6,000 visas have been successively revoked.”

"What matters in this case that these visas were revoked suddenly and without any prior notice or any given justification,” he remarked.