The United States Mission has said Nigeria is not included in the US’ pilot visa $15,000 bond programme.
The outgoing administration of President Donald Trump, Tuesday, issued a temporary rule which makes it mandatory for the nationals of some countries, most of them in Africa, to post a refundable bond of either $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 before they could get a visa to travel to the U.S.
The pilot programme, which is to take effect, from December 24 to June 24. 24 , targets countries whose nationals have higher rates of overstaying B-2 visas for tourists and B-1 visas for business.
The programme is meant to discourage foreign nationals from overstaying the visas.
“The implementation of this pilot builds on our engagement with foreign governments in recent years and will ensure continued progress to reduce overstay rates. Nigeria is not included in this six months pilot program.” .
Reuters reported that 24 countries, including 15 African countries, would be affected by the new programme.
It mentioned Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sudan, Chad, Angola, Burundi, Djibouti and Eritrea as being among the countries that would be affected.
Other countries include Afghanistan, Bhutan, Iran, Syria, Laos and Yemen.
