– and you can bet there are a whole lot of them – as it has been
revealed that they can now secure the American visa within 20 days,
and not 150 days anymore.
This was made known by the United States ambassador to Nigeria, His
Excellency Terence McCulley, during an exclusive interview with
LEADERSHIP. According to him, "We recognise that the visa is an
important part of our relationship and we have every interest in
facilitating legitimate travel visas of students, people and tourists
who want to travel to the US as part of dynamic series of exchanges
between both countries."
The ambassador attributed this to the hard work of the consular
offices in both Abuja and Lagos. Both offices have been able to manage
what is a very significant increase in work load without a concomitant
increase in human or physical resources to manage the interviews that
are being undertaken, he added.
Over the past years there had been a huge increase in demand for the
US visa by Nigerians which led to a significant wait time to secure a
visa interview. This, unfortunately, had permitted middle men and
touts to grab appointments and then resell them, he said: "By reducing
the time Nigerians have to wait to secure a visa, we hope to eliminate
these people who are profiting on the gullibility of visa applicants
and we hope to be able to offer better services," he said.
culled from daily post