It is good news for Nigerians wishing to travel to the United States – 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 us.
According to him, “We recognize 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.