Nigeria backs down on visa fee

The US visa fee has now been reduced from $180 to $160 as the charge payable by Americans coming to Nigeria.

Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola explained on Wednesday, that the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Muhammad Babandede, had been directed to implement the decrease in the visa charges with effect from Thursday.

The US announced the new visa regime on Tuesday, stating that Nigerians applying for US visas will be required to pay a visa issuance fee, or reciprocity fee, with effect from August 29.

According to the US Mission in Abuja, the reciprocity fee will be charged in addition to the non-immigrant visa application fee, also known as the Machine Readable Visa fee, which all applicants pay at the time of application.

Applicants are thus required to pay $110 for B1, B2, B1/B2; F1 and F2 while H1B and H4 visas attract $180.  I visa applicants would cough out $210 while L1, L2 applicants will pay $303 and R1 and R2 $80.

The reciprocity fee is applicable to all approved applications for nonimmigrant visas in B, F, H1B, I, L, and R visa classifications, noting that Nigerian citizens whose applications for a nonimmigrant visa were denied would, however, not be charged the new reciprocity fee.

Both reciprocity and MRV fees are non-refundable, and their amounts vary based on visa classification.

The  interior ministry, however, in a statement by its spokesman, Mohammed Manga, said a committee set up to conduct due diligence in line with the ministry’s extant policy on reciprocity of visa fees had earlier engaged with the US embassy on the issue.

He added that the implementation of its recommendations was delayed due to “transition processes in the ministry at the policy level.”