The United States (US) Mission in Nigeria has stated that Nigeria is not currently part of the pilot visa bond programme.
The Mission made this known in a statement on its website yesterday.
Recall that the Trump administration had introduced a new temporary policy issued to discourage nationals of some countries with higher visa overstay rate, whereby visitors to the US under the new policy from such countries may have to pay up to $15,000 in bonds.
The visa bond pilot programme is said to target mostly African countries with high visa overstay — the visitors are believed to have entered the country legally on student, tourist, work visas and then stay past their visa expiration date.
According to data from its Department of Homeland Security, (DHS), almost 30,000 Nigerians overstayed their B1/B2 visas in 2018, ranking as the 5th country with the most visa overstays in the US.
The pilot programme by its Department of State is said to target mostly African countries with high visa overstay — the visitors are believed to have entered the country legally on student, tourist, work visas and then stay past their visa expiration date.
