‘US visa drop box projects Nigeria in bad light’

…Some Nigerians abused drop box waiver – US sources

….Talks ongoing to resolve issue, says FG

Doosuur Iwambe, Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

Reactions have continued to trail the recent disclosure by the United States Embassy announcing an immediate and indefinite suspension of interview waivers for visa renewals for applicants in Nigeria known as “drop-box.”

Nigerians while reacting to the development in an exclusive interview with The Daily Times described the process as unfair and aimed at projecting country in bad light.

According to a security expert, Inoh T.O, the drop box has a more damaging effect on genuine visa applicants because a lot of those will be turned down.

“This whole issue emanated from people overstaying their welcome and not obeying the rules of the land they find themselves. Globally, Nigeria constitutes about 10 per cent of the people in that category. So as it stands, Nigeria is seen in a bad light,’’ Inoh said.

Also, an Abuja based lawyer, Gbenga Akin, who lamented that the process will incur costs as well as create inconveniences for Nigerians intending to renew their visa, described the development as unfair.

He said that ‘’the new process will subject Nigerians to hardship. Apart from spending money, they will stand on the queue outside the embassy with no provision for their comfort.’’

Meanwhile, the US fixed visa non- refundable fee is $160 (N76, 000).

Reacting to this, a business woman, Moji Balogun, who is currently undergoing the process of renewing her visa, wondered why those in authority would allow foreigners take advantage of their citizens.

According to her, there is no basis why the US should be so hard on Nigerians after all the profit it makes from Nigerians from the non- refundable visa fee charged.

‘’Have you ever sat down to calculate how much the US embassy makes from Nigerians from the non -refundable visa fee? I don’t blame them because if we are a country that loves and protects its citizens, foreigners will not be taking such advantage of us. It is only in Nigeria that such can happen.

“If only our leaders would make a sacrifice and make this country better again, no one will talk about leaving this country, not to talk about going to the US.

“It’s because the drop box section may affect them somehow, hence they have raised concerns and started panicking. If it’s only the poor common immigrant seeking Nigerians, they will never say a word.

“The only reaction expected from a responsible government is to improve on the economy and turn things around for the better in the home country,” she added.

However, anonymous sources from the US embassy while reacting to the development said that some Nigerians thoroughly abused the drop box waiver by overstaying their welcome once they touched down on American soil.

“The US is also worried that Nigerians have been using their visas to march across the border to Canada, a situation that is fast straining diplomatic ties between Canada and the United States.

“By showing up in person to defend your visa renewal process, the US believes it can apprehend some of the criminal elements harming the reputation of Nigerians abroad by denying them re-entries,” the source added.

In the meantime, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, who spoke on what the Nigerian government is doing to address the drop box visa cancellation said, that the Buhari administration has been in talks with the American government in a bid to resolve the issue in a better way.

Hear him: “We are discussing with the Americans and we are trying to see what can be done to make things easier and what they have agreed is to have a mechanism for expedited interviews for certain Nigerians who they are familiar with and that have credibility.

“So that’s the way forward but hopefully, we’ve always encouraged that Nigerians always obey the law, should not overstayed visas because it makes it difficult for genuine visitors.

“But we are still discussing with the Americans and hope that there will be better flexibility.”

On whether the Americans don’t have confidence in Nigerians, he said: “They (Americans) have statistics, they said that ten percent of all global visas overstays in America are Nigerians. That’s credibility right there,” adding that a lot of African countries need to reinforce and strengthen their democracy.

Onyeama however, lamented most of the unpleasant migrant decisions taken by some countries were triggered by the negative perceptions about few Nigerians who do not obey the rules of those countries.

With the recent development, renewing United States visa as a Nigerian, such an applicant must appear at the location specified when applying for the visa renewal.