Posted by Femi Makinde on
The procedure for obtaining visas has been made easier by some of the frontline foreign missions in the country.
The procedure for obtaining visas has been made easier by some of the frontline foreign missions in the country.
The tedium and time-consumption associated with visa processing has significantly eased off, following innovations introduced by some of the high-traffic embassies.
However, this has resulted in a huge increase in the demand for visa. The upsurge recently led the British High Commission to bar first-time applicants between ages 18 and 30 until next year.
A survey by our correspondent shows the radical steps already taken by the United States Embassy, the German Embassy and the British High Commission to reform their visa system.
The US Embassy in August last year switched from mailed-in system to web-based non-immigrant visa appointment scheduling system. The website is http://nigeria.usembassy.gov.
This makes it possible for visa appointments to be scheduled immediately. Applicants no longer need to wait for their mail to arrive at the Consulate and then for a confirmation by return mail before booking an appointment. They also do not need to go and stay overnight at the embassy so as to be among those to be attended to on that particular day.
This new system is also less expensive because an applicant can spend less than 30 minutes browsing the Internet to book an appointment.
After securing the appointment, an applicant is mandated to pay a non-refundable $100 (N14, 000.00) visa application fee, using the eVAPS scratch-card system or US dollars cash.
Also, the British High Commission in Nigeria changed from the telephone booking system for visa appointment to using designated courier companies located in the six-geo political zones.
Prospective UK visa applicants in all the nooks and crannies of the country no longer need to travel to either Lagos or Abuja before scheduling visa appointments. They can do so at any of the courier companies designated as UK visa posts nearest to them. The names and addresses of these courier companies are advertised on the High Commission's website. www.ukvisas.gov.uk. The visa application forms can also be down loaded from the site.
After filling the form, an applicant is required to mail it through the designated courier office along with their passport photograph, the international passport and other required documents.
Those who have previously travelled to the UK or those who have gone to the United States or any European country within the last five years have an easier method of application. This is through the ‘drop box' system by which an applicant submits his application with all the documents and the financial requirement at the High Commission to pick up his visa within a very short while.
The German Embassy uses the telephone booking system for visa appointments. An applicant is expected to call a number: 0803 414 6666 between 07.00a.m and 09.00 am on all working days except Wednesdays. He will supply his full name and passport number.
But frequent travellers who must have obtained at least three Schengen visas or one Schengen visa and two visas of the UK and USA, within the previous 15 months do not require an appointment. Transit travellers as well do not need to book an appointment.
This category of people along with people going for medical treatment and those on invitation for technical training, are required to call at the embassy in person between 07.00am and 09.00 am every working day of the week.
But there have been complaints that the telephone system does not work efficiently as some applicants have complained that they were given standard answers indicating that appointments for the day had been fully booked.
Head of press section of the German Embassy, Hans Koppel, declined to react to enquiries by our correspondent on the problems associated with the telephone system.
In spite of this fresh approach, touts still loiter around Walter Carrington crescent, where the foreign missions are located, promising to obtain visas for people for a fee between N250, 000.00 and N600.000.00 per visa.
' With N300, 000.00 we will arrange UK visa for you. Just bring in your international passport, and passport photos. We will arrange an invitation letter from the UK for you; we have collaborators who will finish the work. My work will end at the airport when you board an aircraft," a tout told our correspondent on Monday.
Another tout said a US visa cost between N500, 000.00 and N600, 000.00.
Meanwhile, statistics show that the number of Nigerians applying for visas has being on the rise.
According to official data obtained from the British High Commission in Nigeria, 230,000 Nigerians applied for different categories of UK visas in the 2004/2005 financial year. Out of this, 114,364 visas, the highest ever in one single year, were issued. By comparison, in 2001, 98,398 applied with only 71,649 visas issued. In 2002, 136,460 Nigerians applied for UK visas out of which 92,937 were successful.
In 2003, the number of visa applicants dropped to 123,481 out of which the High Commission issued 80,641 visas.
Also the United States Mission in Nigeria processed 90,000 visa applications in 2003. But in 2004 the number rose to over 98,000 according to data obtained from the US Consulate General in Lagos.
The German Embassy also witnessed significant increase in the number of visa applicants. It received 17,569 applications in 2000. This rose to 21,848 in 2001 and 27,114 in 2002. In 2003, the figure was 29,685, while it soared to 36,955 in 2004.
Testifying to the claim that more Nigerians travel overseas, the Political and Press Officer of the British High Commission, Mr. Graeme Bannatyne, said, 'Lagos is now the UK's busiest visa post in the world."
Unable to cope with the 20,000 applications it receives monthly, the British High Commission has barred the bulk of the people sending the applications - first time applicants between the ages of 17 and 30 - from submitting applications until next year.
The British High Commission is still under fire for that decision but the High Commissioner said the decision was temporary and in the best interest of Nigeria in view of the strong ties between both countries.
'We regret having to introduce it, but it is essential," the Deputy High Commissioner, Mr. David Wyatt, added.
But ill treatment for Nigerians at some of the embassies has not abated.
For instance, a woman has alleged that an overzealous security man on the instruction of a visa official beat her and her 12- year- old son up on December 12 last year at the French Consulate in Lagos.
Her petition has been dispatched to the Foreign Affairs committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The PUNCH, Monday, May 02, 2005