The United States government has given the Nigerian government the conditions to meet in order to get the visa ban on its citizens lifted.
The US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, disclosed this when she paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige in Abuja.
She maintained that once Nigeria improves her data intelligence, such that it would be easy to investigate any immigrant wishing to visit the United States and meet information-sharing systems, the ban might likely be reviewed.
The US recently announced that it was extending visa restrictions to six countries, including Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation.
Other countries are Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan, Tanzania and Myanmar.
Ban not for everyone
The ban notwithstanding, people from those countries will still be able to visit the US as tourists. Mrs Leonard explained that the immigration policy does not affect people currently resident in the US.
She said: “I think I need to clarify something for you here. The immigrant visa ban does not affect people who are currently resident in the US. It does not cancel the status of anyone currently in the US.
“What Secretary Pompey said was something that was meant to be temporary. And it is about problems with information sharing which are investigable, achievable and resolvable and we look forward to Nigeria in a very short while being able to meet those information-sharing goals so that the decision can be reviewed.
“Students’ visas are not affected by the current visa ban”.
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