THE demand for United States (U.S.) visa far outstrips what the consular section can deal with, rather than a deliberate attempt to shut out qualified travellers from the U.S.

Consequently, this is responsible for the apparent delays in the process, which transmutes, in some cases, to denial of application, the U.S. Consular chief in Nigeria, Stephen Frahm, has said.

Frahm, who spoke yesterday at a briefing in Abuja, also explained the reason why a diplomatic Note Verbale as obtainable from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may not guarantee an instant visa to a government official or individuals under its cover.

Flanked by Public Affairs Information Officer, Deborah Maaclean, Frahm maintained that the briefing was called to update the media on the consular’s activities and unconnected with The Guardian’s story on the Note Verbale crisis last week.

According to him, a government official or someone carrying out duties on government’s business at the behest of the government must have “a particular type of visa” that complies with the U.S. immigration laws, especially the Immigrations and Nationality Act (INA)

“And just submitting a Note Verbale does not change those requirements,” he added.

Nigeria is said to have the lowest number of tourist and students visa refusal in West Africa. Although the embassy officials did not give the exact figures of the number of Nigerians that applied for all categories of U.S. visa last year, Frahm disclosed that 40,000 applications are being targeted for Abuja this year with a higher number expected in Lagos.

Approved visas for Nigerian students (6,700) was 67 per cent of applications last year, making it the highest in sub-Saharan Africa.

On insinuations that U.S. visa consular officers have been debriefed specifically to refuse or reject qualified and legitimate Nigerian travellers as much as they could, Frahm said: “In Nigeria, there is a greater number of applications than we have the ability to process. Abuja can only deal with 200 applications and Lagos, between 350-400, that’s about 600 per day. Nigerians should plan ahead of time, say six months. Visa application should not be the last thing to be done but the very first.”

On cases of Nigerians being embarrassingly turned back after acquiring visa to the U.S. he said: “INA deals with this. The procedures are based on the activities you are engaged in, in the U.S.

“Even at that a visa is not a permission to be in the U.S. but a permission to go to the U.S. So just to have a visa does not mean that part is guaranteed. So the inspector or immigration officer at the point of entry has to determine. The check is whether the activity you are engaged in is consistent with the U.S. law.

“Nigerians should resist bad advice, getting wrong information, or paid information that make people bad liars. We are interested in the truth of presentations. So you may be a legitimate traveller but must also put facts together for a visa interview to be successful.”