The United States of America Consulate in Nigeria said the immigration visa ban imposed on Nigerians by its President, Donald Trump, would be reviewed once Nigeria meets the required criteria.
The US Government had on January 31 announced the new visa regime, which involved the suspension of the issuance of immigrant visas to Nigerian passport holders while claiming that Nigeria did not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.
An officer in the US consulate in Nigeria, Ross Conroy, on Monday noted that the ban was a targeted action towards Nigerians migrating to the United States and not a total ban on Nigerians as propagated by some media outlets.
Conroy said this while speaking as the guest speaker at the World Peace and Understanding Month of the Rotary Club of Ikeja District 9110.
Conroy, who spoke on different initiatives the United States had put in place to foster peace in northern Nigeria and other parts of the country, noted that without effective and inclusive peace and reconciliation processes, the violence in the country might continue.
He said, “A study was conducted in 2018 among sample-size Nigerians and it was discovered that 45 per cent of Nigerians claimed that they wanted to leave Nigeria in the next five years but I do want to say that the travel ban is a very specific and targeted action only looking at the immigrant visas.
“It only impacts people immigrating to the United States through links with family members. It is not a complete ban, people are getting their visas once they have their interviews and this is not a permanent type of arrangement, it is something that was borne out of the failure to meet certain security and information-sharing criteria by the Nigerian government and once that is met as the ambassador made it clear last week, this decision will certainly be reviewed.”
