Immigration: Nigerians face growing visa hurdles in UK, US, Canada, UAE, others

UK Visa

In recent times, several countries, including the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada and United Arab Emirates, UAE, among others, have introduced stricter visa restrictions against Nigerians as part of their immigration crackdown and growing protectionism among the world superpowers.

Countries that have so far restricted foreign travel for Nigerians have cited concerns around national security, economic concerns and public health issues.

The policy changes, according to most of countries, aimed to reduce the overall immigration numbers, address perceived issues with visa overstay and poor documentations as well as align their immigration policies with domestic priorities.

Just two days ago, the US released a new visa policy, reducing non-immigrant and non-diplomatic visa duration for Nigerians to three months with single-entry permitted.

This latest policy is one out of many immigration and visa restrictions introduced so far by the Donald Trump’s administration since he assumed office in January.

The US has also been implementing restrictions on student visa, including suspension of interview and enhanced social media screening for applicants.

The UK and Canada have equally introduced similar measures to curtail immigration, indirectly or directly targeting Nigerians.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said that diplomatic engagements were ongoing to resolve the latest visa restrictions slammed on Nigerian by the US.

In a statement signed by Imomotimi Ebienfa, spokesperson of the ministry, made available to Vanguard, the government urged the United States to reconsider the decision in the spirit of partnership, cooperation and shared global responsibilities.

The statement read: “The attention of the Federal Government of Nigeria has been drawn to the recent decision by the United States Government to revise its visa reciprocity schedule for Nigerian citizens, limiting the validity of non-immigrant visas including B1/B2, F and J categories to three months with single entry.