The United States Mission has stated that over 220,000 people applied for the non-immigrant visas from Nigeria in 2014.
The Chief Consular Officer of the U.S.
Embassy, Ms Stacie Hankins, said i66 per cent of tourist visa
applications were actually granted in the same year.
Hankins explained that two in every
three applicants were successful, adding refusal of visa applications
and failure to make use of visa had no disadvantage on the applicants.
She also said the U.S. Mission received
more than 138,578 applications for non-immigrant travel to the U.S. for
the 2015 fiscal year, which started in October, 2014.
“Fiscal year 2014 ended Sept. 30, 2014 and Lagos and Abuja together processed about 220,000 non-immigrant visa applications.
“Fiscal year 2015 started Oct. 1, 2014 and from then till date, we’ve processed about 138,000 non-immigrant visa applications.
Hankins said the Abuja Consular Office
processed about 400 visa applications everyday from Monday to Friday,
while the Lagos Consulate office processed about 900 applications daily.
She said that cases of visa racketeering
had been received while cases of fraudulent activities had been
reported to the police, which had made arrests and detained the
suspects.
According to her, applicants for non-immigrant visas from Nigeria who were denied visas can reapply six months after.
