₦airaland Forum

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.”

Dis Guy:
sounds like you've been reading naija newspapers too much!

Nigeria is a very funny place, you ask for investigative journalism, you get it then blame it on tribalism, cabalism, yada yada yaaa
when journalist interview naija politics we shout disrespect, CIA,FBI insider, racism
Some of these politicians will commit suicide if the British journalist ever get their time

who is haunting Jonathan
who is haunting Ibori

funny enough if this case was about some mallam or someone from another region it will be business as usual

blacksta:
ATM machines tried and tested in many western nations - absolute flawless " unplug the machine and bring the same to Nigeria it is a different story ( machines starts eating money). Good things will only work if their is will power

i have a wife and two children living in a flat i bought 4 years ago in London - i work as a Senior Linux/Unix admin and earn a good salary. However with the UK becoming aggressively expensive to live in i was wondering on relocating to Nigeria. I have lived here in London all my life (i think this has been a major disadvantage) and have visited Nigeria, to my shame with my mother.

Now, well to do people that i know have relocated to Nigeria because they are quite fed up with UK life. The major issue here is tax and your right to earn a decent salary that one can save without fear of the Government trying to re-tax it. The tax system here is quite socialistic in design and what i mean is is that you work simply to keep the "state" alive and receive nothing in return. Here in the UK you really do not own anything out right. For instance your property belongs to the bank if you have yet to pay off the mortgage and even then the land which the house sits on is owned by the Queen (hence how they were able to seize land from people to host the Olympics). In truth they can seize anybody's land and the only reason why they do not is because of public face. Its a hard pill to swallow but true.

Your car is not yours since without MOT you cannot drive your car on the roads and are in danger of having it seized by the bailiffs. Car insurance increased fro no good reason by 30% at least and is set to increase again by 30% by the end of this year. Again for no good reason.

VAT increased from 17 to 20 %. Fuel at 1.38 per litre. Council tax will increase and banks have increased the interest rate on home owners by +3.5%above the base rate.

Almost every road in London has parking restrictions and you end up having to pay £110 if you float the parking rule. If you do not pay the bailiffs are sent in to seize your property. The bill can escalate to 1000s of pounds. There are many cases where the council will hand parking tickets to drivers unlawfully just to rake in more cash.

The educational system here is a joke. FULLSTOP.

Is Nigeria a better option if you have a plan. I have prayed about this and i know God is saying to stay put for know

Has anyone got any suggestions.

chamber2:
Even though i commend the efforts of the donor, but donating laptops to pry and secondary sch students is pure malapropism.An average Nigerian university student has no computer, and these are people who are expected to engage in research and all that.Why not do not the laptops to the university students?

Also, most of the books donated will find themselves in the bookshops soon, no thanks to our corrupt sec sch principals and VCs.During my time at the uni, books were donated by our US based alumni, surprisingly these books never came into the library.They were all sold.

Kudos to them anyway.

geosegun:
@SEUN

I AM COMPLETELY DISSAPOINTED AT WHAT YOU SAID. HE/SHE WHO DOES NOT SEE IT WORTHY TO SERVE HIS/HER FATHER LAND WHEN THINGS WERE NOT ROSY SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN A JUICY APPOINTMENT AT ANY POINT IN TIME. IF PROVED GUILTY, SHE MUST[b] BE RELIEVED OF HER APPOINTMENT IMMEDIATELY.[/b]