The Federal Government has approved the reduction of of visa charges
payable by US citizens in line with the reciprocity policy.
This comes after the United States increased the cost of visa
application for Nigerians.
Nigerians are required to pay a fee called visa ‘issuance fee’, or
‘reciprocity fee’, for all applications for non-immigrant visas in B, F,
H1B, I, L, and R visa classifications.
The issuance/reciprocity fee is different from the application fees as
this will be charged in addition to the non-immigrant visa application
fee.
However, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola in a statement by the
Director Press and Public Relations, Mohammed Manga, said that “the
Ministry acknowledges that there were engagements with the United States
Embassy on the issue and in the aftermath, a Committee was set up to
conduct due diligence in line with the Ministry’s extant policy on
reciprocity of Visa fees.
“The Committee had concluded its assignment and submitted a Report but
the issuance of authorisation for its recommendations was delayed due to
transition processes in the Ministry at the policy level.
“The Honourable Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has
approved the decrease of Visa charges payable by US citizens in line
with reciprocity policy as recommended by the Committee.
“Accordingly, the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service
(NIS), Muhammad Babandede, has been directed to implement the decrease
in Nigeria’s Visa charges to US Citizens with effect from Thursday, 29th
August, 2019”.