The United States Consul General, Will Stevens, has given reasons US visa appointments for Nigerians have been extended to as far as 2024 and beyond.
In an interview with Punch, Stevens explained that there has been a surge in applications and that at a point, the US consulate was short-staffed due to COVID-19 pandemic and some other factors but that currently, things are beginning to normalize with regards to their operations.
He stated that the consulate has also explored the drop box window where people who have had US visas in the last four years can now renew their visas without coming for an interview.
“We have a big backlog and we are working hard to dig into it. It has dropped quite a bit in the last two months. We have increased the eligibility for people to use what we used to call Dropbox, which is interview waiver. If you have had a visa that expired in the last four years, you don’t have to come in for an interview. That window used to be two years, but now it’s four years. That means many more people don’t have to come in for an interview.
We have also increased staffing by adding more people so we can deal with the surge. Covid-19 really hit us in terms of staffing; some people left and we had to conduct interviews and go through the process. But now we are back to full staffing. I am optimistic that it may take some time but we will get there. I think there is an incredible demand and interest.
One of the things we have done is to prioritise key sectors, like student visas for people who want to travel on time for the September resumption and now for January. We had a 12 per cent increase this year in the number of Nigerians studying in the US after almost 15,000 Nigerians in the US, which puts Nigeria in the top.
10 countries that send students to the US.
It’s a wonderful thing; they go and study and they come back with deep connections to the US.” he said.
