US data reveals visa denials for Nigerians increased in 2018
A study of data released by the US Department of State has revealed a
high reduction in the number of Nigerians that received the US
non-immigrant visas in the last three years.
Every year, non immigrant visas are granted to foreign nationals to
enter the United States on a temporary basis for purposes like
tourism, medical, business, temporary work and study. Nigerians have
benefitted from this gesture over the years but a gale of visa denials
in the past year has changed the story.
For the last fiscal year 2018, a total of 143,783 non-immigrant US
visas were issued to Nigerians. In the 2017 fiscal year, the figure
was 168,980.
In 2016, a total of 179, 145 Nigerians were granted different
categories of non-immigrant visas to the US.
When compared to the figures released for the 2016 and 2017 fiscal
years, the data reveal visa denials for Nigerians surged in 2018.
Data for 2019 has not been published but there have been lamentations
from many Nigerians about high rejection rate since the beginning of
the year.
With a 57.47 per cent adjusted refusal rate, Nigeria was also listed
among top countries like Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Burundi, Burkina Faso
etc with high refusal rate for B-visas. B visas are issued for
short-term business or pleasure travel to the United States.
Despite the surge in visa denials for Nigerians, the country still
accounts for the highest percentage of visas issued to African
nationals in the past three years.
For the 2018 fiscal year, nationals of African countries got a total
of 493,989 non-immigrant visas out of which 143, 783 were Nigerians.
Last year, a total of 9,028,026 persons were granted the non-immigrant
visas by the US. Contrary to the claim that Nigeria is the biggest
beneficiary of the US non-immigrant visa, Nigerians only account for
just 1.6 per cent of the total figure of those granted the
non-immigrant visas in the last fiscal year.