Diaspora Nigerians In U.S. Kick As Visa Issuance Runs Into Hitch

By Baron Ike
Diaspora Nigerians living in the United States have raised the alarm that they are finding it difficult to procure the Nigerian visa, citing a lot of hitches.
They are more concerned that few weeks to this year’s Christmas when a lot of them are committed to returning home to honour one engagement or the other, things seem not to be getting better.
They have therefore sent a Save Our Soul (SOS) to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama to intervene urgently or the image of the country would be the worse for it. A copy of the letter was obtained by Armadanesws.com.
Specifically, the Diaspora Nigerians in the U.S. have faulted the introduction of fresh visa acquisition processes and the contractor handling the exercise as the greatest hiccup militating against procurement of the vital national document.
They want the contract with the contractor, OIS terminated, biometrics dropped, enough booklets provided and the former mode of application which saw them going to designated places other than the lone place the contractor has indicated changed, among other demands.
Writing from Washington DC USA, Emmanuel Ogebe, Managing Partner, US Nigeria Law Group on Wednesday, November 1 said when the Vice President visited and had a town hall meeting with Nigerians residing in Houston U.S. last year he promised that the issue of procurement of visas would not exceed 48 hours, a promise he said had been messed up by current developments.
They regretted that the Diaspora Nigerians who have been noted for contributing to the growth in the economy of the country through remittances that run into billions of dollars, would be made to go through untold difficulty before obtaining a visa to visit their own country as a result of government policies and flawed implementation.
Ogebe’s SOS to the minister reads: “Greetings from Washington. I write to convey to you a critical emergency with regard to the visa situation in Nigeria’s diplomatic missions in the US brought to my attention by affected citizens. The resulting system failures are endangering the well-being of thousands of Nigerians who are planning to travel to Nigeria for the upcoming Christmas holiday and couldn’t possibly have happened at a worse time.”
He identified the challenges militating against the issuance of visas to include:
“1.DISRUPTIVE INTRODUCTION OF FLAWED NEW VISA PROCESS: Without any significant advance notice or prior sensitization, the Nigerian government decided to consolidate visa processing into one independent contractor to service the entire 50 states of the US home to over 1 million Nigerian citizens. This negates the very purpose for having consulates in New York and Atlanta which are major population centers for Nigerians in Diaspora. Indeed during Vice President Osinbajo’s townhall meeting with Nigerians in Diaspora in October last year, citizens in Houston asked for a consulate there as well. Rather than bring government closer to the people, this action has taken government and consular services farther away from them.
“2. QUESTIONABLE EXCLUSIVE VISA PROCESSING CONTRACTOR: There are also questions as to why one solitary company would be tasked with such an onerous responsibility normally serviced by duly trained and paid diplomats and support staff for years. It is clear that this organization neither has the capacity nor geographic footprint to properly serve the needs of visa applicants in the US. Worse still, the identities and personal data of applicants will now be in the hands of unknown private individuals.
“3. TEDIOUS INTRODUCTION OF BIOMETRICS: Worse still, a biometric requirement has apparently been introduced for intending visitors to Nigeria. This means that applicants now have to travel from Los Angeles to Washington (the equivalent of flying from Lagos to London) just to apply for a Nigerian visa. This is not only an onerous but an absurd situation that will only cause more hardship on citizens and potential investors. It should be noted that while citizens had to travel for passport biometrics, they had the option of three US locations (Atlanta, Washington and New York) to go to. If they couldn’t travel, the fall back option was to apply for a visa which didn’t require their physical presence. This current situation has deprived Nigerians of affordable visa application options without needless travel.
“4. DYSFUNCTION AND LACK OF CAPACITY OF THE OIS CONTRACTOR: The company exclusively contracted to process visas in the US has been overwhelmed and unprofessional. Callers have been on hold for almost an hour only to be told to leave a voicemail message and wait for a return call that may never come. Unlike the embassy which is a known entity and where there is some form of accountability, there is no immediate follow up system for the private company OIS. This adds to delays, frustration and avoidable angst for applicants. Ironically Vice President Osinbajo had assured of expedited visa processing in 48 hours last year when speaking at an investment forum in Houston Texas. This situation is quite contrary to the government’s publicly stated position.
“5. SCARCITY OF VISA STAMPS AND PASSPORT BOOKLETS: There are reportedly few passport booklets or no visa stamps for issuance even if all the above dys-functionalities were addressed. This is scandalous, outrageous and unacceptable on any level. Citizens are asking for the globally recognized identity and nationality tender. This is the most basic of services every country must render to its citizens in the global community. Besides that this is not a free service. Nigerians are paying for this document. More so citizens in Diaspora are paying for the passport in dollars at a higher rate than their counterparts at home. How Nigeria could fail in this minimum service delivery obligation to provide paid for passports is shocking, appalling and unconscionable. Accordingly we respectfully demand the following to be done by your ministry with immediate effect:
“1. REVERT TO STATUS QUO: Suspend the exclusive contract given to OIS to process all visa applications in the USA and revert to the status quo. It is to be noted that prior to this OIS contract, visas were processing smoothly on a 5-day turn around and the embassy in Washington provided a business center for citizens to use during the tenure of the late ambassador Adefuye.
“2. CANCEL BIOMETRICS: Cancel the requirement for biometric processing for visa applicants in the US. In the first place Nigerian citizens apply for visas on US passports should not be subjected to biometrics requirements just to go home. If it is imperative for non-Nigerians, the data capture can be done on arrival in Nigeria.
“3. PROVIDE BOOKLETS: Provide adequate supplies of passport booklets and visa stamps for US missions consular services. In the event that these are unavailable, there should be a back up system to prevent citizens from being stranded.
“4. EXTEND PASSPORTS BY RENEWAL: Reintroduce old passport book renewals for 5 years for Nigerians in Diaspora. The government of Nigeria inexplicably eliminated the practice of renewing expired passports for an additional 5 years totaling 10 years of longevity as is the norm with US passports. However now a booklet expires at 5 years and a new booklet has to be acquired and biometrics repeated. Since Nigeria serially fails to provide adequate booklets abroad, it behooves the government to extend the life and validity of an expired passport for an additional 5 year (totaling 10 years of longevity).
“5. AUTOMATIC VISA ON ARRIVAL: Allow automatic visa on arrival for Nigerians traveling home on foreign passports. Nigerians returning home should not be put through obstacles to achieve that.
“6. INVESTIGATE THE DISRUPTIVE CHANGE: Investigate how and why such a disruptive change was done without wide sensitization and consultation with stakeholders in the Diaspora and in particular the suspicious exclusive contract with OIS. Hon. Minister, Nigerians in Diaspora remit billions of dollars into the economy annually. In 2015, the amount remitted to Nigeria was $21 billion projected to rise to $22 billion this year making Nigeria the 6th largest beneficiary of Diaspora remittances in the world.
“Kindly note that: 1.Nigerian Diaspora remittance exceeds Nigeria’s annual national budget (which is even a deficit budget requiring loan-financing) 2. Nigerian Diaspora’s $22 billion capital infusion into the Nigerian economy this year at $1=N360 is much more valuable than in the 2015 injection of $21 billion at $1=N197,and 3. Nigerian Diaspora remittance helped stabilize the economy from capital flight occasioned by looting, recession, and investor disinvestments.
“Hon. Minister, the contributions from Diaspora is more than the $22 billion cited above as citizens return with cash, goods, projects and other value added resources and human capital which is not easily quantifiable. Any obstructions in the path of visiting Nigerians apart from being morally reprehensible is also self-economic sabotage.
“Nigerians in Diaspora are Nigeria’s number one tourism dollars source and the country’s largest non-oil forex earner. While Diasporans have no voting powers, they should at least not be disallowed basic travel documents.
“Besides the economic importance, I am constrained to write this urgent SOS to you due to a bereavement of a Diasporan who has been unable to obtain travel documents to return home for her mother’s burial. Culturally, this is abominable. Kindly do your utmost to resolve this unbecoming situation.”