A new report has revealed that the year 2018, saw a total of 143,783 non-immigrant US visas issued to Nigerians while in 2017 fiscal year, the figure was 168,980.
2016, saw a total of 179, 145 Nigerians granted different categories of non-immigrant visas to the US.
However, data has revealed that the visa denials for Nigerians grew in 2018.
Armed with a 57.47% adjusted refusal rate, Nigeria alongside countries like Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Burundi, Burkina Faso etc., ranked amongst ones with high refusal rate for B-visas. B visas are issued for short-term business or pleasure travel to the United States.
Despite the growth in the rate at which visa applications were denied in 2018, Nigerian, still accounts for the highest percentage of visas issued to African nationals in the past three years.
2018 fiscal year, saw nationals of African countries getting a total of 493,989 non-immigrant visas with 143, 783 being from Nigerians.
A total of 9,028,026 persons were granted the non-immigrant visas by the US in 2018 which slams the claim that Nigeria is the biggest beneficiary of the US non-immigrant visa as the country can only account for 1.6 per cent of the total figure.
China with 16.2%, China led the total figure with 1,464,810 citizens granted different categories of non-immigrant visas in 2018. Mexico followed suit with (1,372,420), India (1,006,802), Brazil (641,820) and Argentina (341,282), Philippines (238,684), Colombia (235,410), Israel (186,461), Ecuador (164,651) and then Nigeria (143,783).
