They however said it was very difficult to secure early interview dates after paying the necessary fee required by the US consulate. Some applicants said they had applied for admission into various institutions in the US earlier this year, after which they were given admission and provided with Form I-20, which enabled them to book an interview appointment. “Imagine if you just got pregnant and would like your mother to come and take care of the baby, if your mother starts applying for a visa today, that baby will be over one year old by the time your mother is interviewed, ” a travel agent said. It wrote that as other sectors of the economy reached a full recovery, business travel spending was about 50 percent below 2019 levels and international travel spending was down 78 percent compared with 2019. The coalition is made up of Airlines for America, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the US Chamber of Commerce and the US Travel Association. In a February 2022 letter to the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, members of the US Chamber Travel Coalition urged the Biden administration to ease domestic and international travel requirements and coordinate with other countries to ease travel between countries. The latest State Department data from its consulates show the wait for some visa interviews can routinely be more than a year, and the majority of consulates now take more than six months to schedule an interview for a tourist or business traveller. Though wait times vary significantly from consulate to consulate, Bier said, “it is the worst it’s ever been since 9/11.” And that produced what we’re seeing now, which is year-plus waits, massive backlogs and all the problems associated with that,” he told VOA. “They just stopped doing work during COVID. The US Department of State blamed the pandemic for the backlogs.ĭavid Bier, associate director of immigration policy at the Libertarian Cato Institute, said the two-year, pandemic-induced lockdown of US consulates around the world halted visa services. In Brazil, the wait time is 760 days, in Guyana it is 900 days. Kennedy International Airport and Lagos three weeks ago.ĭelta said customers impacted by its suspended New York-JFK-Lagos service would be re-accommodated on Delta-operated flights or service operated by its joint venture partners.īusinessDay’s finding show that Nigeria is not the only country affected by the development but has a longer wait time to secure interview dates. The travel agent said the situation might have led to the suspension of Delta Air Lines’ direct nonstop service between New York-John F. She said the situation had made more students seek admission in the United Kingdom and other countries, saying the long wait for US visa interviews was affecting travels to the country. Ogonna said sometimes, even students are not issued early dates for interviews, despite having their Form I-20, which proves that a person is legally enrolled in a programme of study in the US. Applicants will have to wait for over two years to secure interview dates and they are not even sure of getting the visas eventually,” Gina Ogonna, a travel agent at Green Travels, told BusinessDay. “We hardly get people buying tickets to travel to the United States for family visits, business or tourism because the process of getting the visas is very discouraging. Read also US Consulate explains new visa programme, says not drop box Applicants are required to schedule an appointment for the interview, either online or through a call centre.Īpart from students, those travelling for emergencies and medicals, the earliest interview dates are years from now. The DropBox facility makes visa renewals quick and easy by helping applicants eliminate the in-person visa interview requirement.Īny applicant whose visa expired beyond two years and those who are applying for the first time will have to apply to get interview dates.Īpplicants for US visas are required to appear in person for a visa interview at the embassy in Abuja or the consulate general in Lagos. It is a facility to submit documents without an interview. DropBox is the facility or process used to apply for visa renewal without the visa interview.
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