Outgoing President Donald Trump of USA has imposed $15,000 Visa Bond on Nigerians and others visiting USA.
Nigerians planning to visit the United States will have to cough out between $5,000 to $15,000 visa bond.
The United States under President Donald Trump has placed Nigeria and other countries on a visa bond ranging from $5,000 to $15,000.
The new temporary rule means that tourist and business travellers from a dozen African countries, including Nigeria will pay a bond to visit the United States.
The new rule will take effect from 24 December.
SENATOR DINO MELAYE APPRECIATES LADY THAT WROTE THESIS ON HIS RELIGIOUS SPEECH
NIGERIA SLIDS INTO WORST ECONOMIC RECESSION
GUNMEN ATTACK MOSQUE, KILLED FIVE, ABDUCT MANY
Police Brutality: How 20 years old boy was killed & Corpse seized By Hospital
Other countries whose tourist and business travellers could be subject to the bond requirement are those from Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sudan, Chad, Angola, Burundi, Djibouti and Eritrea.
Afghanistan, Bhutan, Iran, Syria, Laos and Yemen are also listed.
Nigerian travellers will have to pay the bond as some categories of visitors overshot the threshold of 10 percent and above overstaying rate.
A total of 17,566 overstayed. Out of the figure, 764 departed late and 16,802 stayed in the country.
But in other classifications, 11.12 percent of 9,336 Nigerian non-immigrant and exchange visitors overstayed.
Another 13.67 percent of in-scope non immigrant visitors also overstayed same year.
However, the U.S. State Department said the temporary final rule, which takes effect Dec. 24 and runs through June 24, targets countries whose nationals have higher rates of overstaying B-2 visas for tourists and B-1 visas for business travellers.
Also, the Trump administration said the six-month pilot program aims to test the feasibility of collecting such bonds and will serve as a diplomatic deterrence to overstaying the visas.
Trump, who lost a re-election bid earlier this month, made restricting immigration a central part of his four-year term in office.
SCHOLARSHIP: McDONNELL INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARS ACADEMY WASHINGTON USA
President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, has pledged to reverse many of the Republican president’s immigration policies, but untangling hundreds of changes could take months or years.
Source: Reuter
