The US Mission in Nigeria said on Friday that the reason it reduced visa validity for Nigerians was not because of a recent action by the Nigerian government.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that the US embassy on Tuesday announced that it had reduced visa validity for non-immigrant Nigerian applicants from five years to three months.
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Although the embassy gave reciprocity as the reason for its action, it has now said it was not a reciprocal action.
According to the embassy, the reduction is also no connection with the country’s stance on accepting deportees from Venezuela, the recent introduction of e-visa policies, or its affiliations with BRICS.
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But rather, it is “a part of an ongoing global review of the use of US visas by other countries using technical and security benchmarks to safeguard US immigration systems.”
“We value our longstanding partnership with Nigeria and remain committed to working closely with the Nigerian public and government officials to help them meet those criteria and benchmarks, thereby ensuring safe, lawful, and mutually beneficial travel between our nations,” the embassy wrote in a Friday post on X.
Nigeria faulted the US action, with officials suggesting different reasons but saying the US action was not justified.
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The presidency earlier issued a statement noting that the claim of reciprocity as the reason for the recent visa policy did not accurately reflect the reality of Nigeria’s current visa policy toward US citizens.
During a one-on-one interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, linked the new policy to the rejection of Venezuelan deportees from the US, a claim the country’s Nigerian Mission denied on Friday.
The minister said the pressure on Nigeria to accept Venezuelan deportees is unfair as the country already has its own problems.
“It will be difficult for a country like Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria. We have enough problems of our own.
“We cannot accept Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria for crying out loud. We already have 230 million people. You will be the same people that would castigate us if we acquiesce to accepting Venezuelans from US prisons to be brought in,” he said.
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