The United States of America has warned Nigerians about overstaying the authorised period granted in their visa, saying that such a violation will result in deportation and a probable permanent travel ban.
This followed a series of travel restrictions and visa curbs affecting Nigerians, announced by the US recently as part of its ongoing immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump’s administration.
The US Mission in Nigeria announced this yesterday in a post on its X handle.
“If you remain in the United States beyond your authorised period of stay, you could be deported and could face a permanent ban on travelling to the United States in the future,” the US said in the post.
Early last week, the US announced an update to its visa reciprocity policy for Nigerians, limiting the non-immigrant and non-diplomatic visa to three three-month single entry, citing reciprocity policy, visa overstay, national security and wrong documentations as part of the reasons.
It further announced a fresh $250 mandatory integrity fee for students, workers and tourists’ visas.
In addition to the Visa Integrity Fee, the bill introduces several non-waivable travel-related surcharges.
These include a $24 I-94 fee, a $13 Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) fee for Visa Waiver Program travelers, According to the rule, the surcharge would apply to visa categories, including B-1/B-2 (tourist/business), F and M (students), H-1B (workers), and J (exchange visitors).Under the new rule, only diplomatic applicants in categories A and G would be exempted. The law states unequivocally that in fourteen instances.
The two visa curbs were announced last week after the US mandated social media screening as part of the vetting process for applicants seeking to study in the States.
It had mandated applicants to list all their social media usernames and also remove the privacy settings to allow proper screening.
In the post announcing the measure, the US Embassy in Nigeria said: “Every visa adjudication is a national security decision. Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J non-immigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their personal social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States.
President Trump has been embarking on strict immigration policy since taking office, enforcing the removal of illegal immigrants from the US.
Trump signed a swathe of executive orders calling for an increased and very strict screening process during the visa-granting process to ensure that those given visas and allowed to enter the United States do not wish to harm citizens.
He further ordered continued screening of immigrants and ensuring that those already within the U.S. do not aid what he deemed as foreign terrorist groups and that they do not bear hostility towards the country.
