The News
The US Trump administration has slashed the length of stay for Nigerian tourists and business visitors to the United States under a revised visa policy for Africa’s most populous country.
Until now, Nigerian passport holders could get a multiple entry visa that would allow them to stay in the US for up to six months at a time, over five years. That policy took effect in March 2023 to improve on the previous grant of two-year visitor visas. Nigerians who met certain criteria could even renew their US visas without needing to attend an embassy or consulate interview.
But the new direction, in which a three-month visa will only allow for a single entry, is part of a wider review of the US’s policy on issuing reciprocal non-immigrant visas, the State Department said. Revising the policy and visa criteria is in line with the need to “protect the integrity of U.S. immigration systems,” the department said on Tuesday, adding that it was working with the Nigerian government to ensure the country meets new criteria.
Nigeria does not currently issue five-year visas to US travellers, according to the Nigerian immigration agency. The Nigerian government said in 2023 that it would fully implement a five-year tourist visa validity for American citizens based on reciprocity, to enforce new bilateral agreements between both countries, but the policy did not materialize.
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Many African countries have been affected by President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown on US international aid, immigration, and trade. Travel restrictions on 19 countries signed last month mainly focused on Africa and the Middle East, with the specter of restrictions on 25 more African countries looming large in Washington.
Nigeria, the world’s most populous Black nation, is one of the 25, according to reports. It has mostly stayed out of Trump’s direct ire this year, except for the 14% tariffs imposed on Nigerian exports to the US as part of the now paused ‘Liberation Day’ announcement of reciprocal tariffs on several nations.
The State Department cited a need for Nigerians to “respect and adhere to the terms of their visas” in its statement on the visa review, a concern that it has said has informed Trump’s travel restrictions. African countries posted among the highest non-immigrant US visitor visa overstay rates in 2023, led by Chad (50%), Congo Brazzaville (29%), and Sudan (26%), according to a Department of Homeland Security report last year. Nigeria’s was 7% with 6,000 overstays.
Step Back
Nigeria’s foreign policy under President Bola Tinubu has focused on winning trade and investment deals into the country to revitalize a struggling economy, and patching up the walls of the West African political bloc Ecowas that has been shaken up by coups. Two years into the administration, the country has yet to appoint ambassadors to its foreign missions, including Washington.
Notable
- Trump threatened to impose additional 10% tariffs on countries that align with the “anti-American policies” of the BRICS bloc of economies in the Global South, which Nigeria joined as a partner country earlier this year.