How Nigerian government ignored US warning before visa ban

The United States of America has stated that Nigeria and other foreign governments were notified about identity-management and information-sharing criteria in 2019, before the eventual visa ban.

Nigeria is rated one of the worst-performing countries on the performance metrics.

However, the Republic of Chad improved on their metrics and were removed from the list of countries who cannot apply for immigration visa to the US.

This was contained in the full report of the visa restrictions titled, ‘Proclamation on improving enhanced vetting capabilities and process’ published on www.whitehouse.gov.

“The process began on March 11, 2019, when the United States Government formally notified all foreign governments (except for Iran, Syria, and North Korea) about the refined performance metrics for the identity-management and information-sharing criteria,” it read.

Apart from Nigeria, others on the list are Eritrea, Myanmar, Tanzania, Sudan and Kyrgyzstan.

On January 31, the US government announced the suspension of the issuance of immigrant visas to certain nations, but the order comes into effect from February 21.