United States Embassy in Nigeria, yesterday, said it was expanding its services to assist qualified non-immigrant visa applicants.
It said it commenced a visa interview waiver programme with the pilot project commencing at the U.S. Consulate in Lagos.
Speaking during a press conference at the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, the U.S. Mission Country Consular Coordinator, Susan Tuller, noted that the project was ‘no-interview’ visa renewals.
Tuller said it would be limited initially and applied only to applicants for academic exchange, work, study and tourist visas seeking renewal.
According to her, every eligible applicant must have a previous visa that expired within the last 24 months or would expire in the next three months from the date of application.
She said: “This is not a non-immigrant visa interview waiver process known as the ‘drop box.’ The new application procedure begins this month at the U.S. Consulate in Lagos and will be extended shortly, thereafter, to the U.S. Embassy in Abuja. The number of qualified applicants, who can apply using the new procedures, will be limited initially. Applicants who meet the criteria may apply in Lagos until the service is extended to Abuja.”
She said the ‘drop box’ system didn’t achieve its intended goals because it was fraught with “fraud and high overstay rates”, whereas the consular unit aimed at strengthening “border security, productivity and customer service.”
On Tuesday, May 14, 2019, the embassy indefinitely suspended interview waivers for renewals. It insisted then that applicants in Nigeria seeking a non-immigrant visa to the U.S. must apply online and would be required to appear in person at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja or U.S. Consulate General in Lagos to submit their application for review.
