hehehe...The
Consul-General, United States Embassy, William Laidlaw, has said the US
visa application processes were simple and not as stringent as people
thought, stressing that the mission was working to improve and make its
visa processes better for Nigerians by decentralising it.
Laidlaw
explained that to qualify for a visit to the US, an applicant must show
that he has social and economic ties sufficient to meet the American
immigration terms, adding that those who failed to meet this requirement
are often turned down.
The
Consul-General, who said this during a tour of the US Consular Section
by select journalists in Abuja on Thursday, added that those who had
social and economic ties usually had easier time and more chance to
obtain US visa than somebody who is just starting out.
He said,
“To really qualify for a visit to the US, you have to show you have
social and economic ties sufficient to meet the immigration terms we
have in our laws.
“To have
those social and economic ties usually means somebody who has developed a
career, developed a household and has done something to develop himself
within Nigeria.”
Laidlaw
said people who were refused visa could re-apply if they felt that the
situations had changed, as according to him, statistics showed that
many who re-applied were issued visas.
“If you
can establish your social and economic ties and we understand who you
are in Nigerian context, that allows us to make an evaluation judgment;
It’s very hard for very young people, I’m sorry, but that’s the way the
law is written,” he said.
He,
however, said young business people or students who did not receive a
visa should not be discouraged as they could be successful the next time
they applied.
According
to him, no fewer than 7,000 Nigerians are studying in his country,
noting that 66 per cent of tourist visa applications were approved in
2014.
The
Consul-General said the missions in Abuja and Lagos processed about 400
to 900 visa applications daily, excluding the drop-box applications
which are meant for visa renewal.
He said,
“Between 2009 and 2014, visa applications rose by 345 per cent in our
missions based in Abuja and Lagos. Nigeria is an expanding country and
the Nigerian middle class is becoming more and more prominent and
growing and all those things reflected in the growth rate we see in visa
applications.”
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