United States Mission Announces Priority Attention To Student Visa Applicants

<p><em>United States Embassy on visa applicants<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that the U&period;S&period; Mission will prioritize student visa applicants and ensure Nigerian students resuming this Fall get visa interview appointments well in advance of their program start date&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>U&period;S&period; Mission Country Consular Coordinator Susan Tuller announced this on Friday that the Embassy in Abuja and Consulate General in Lagos will make every effort to assist student visa applicants in a timely fashion while keeping personnel and customers safe&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a statement signed by Temitayo Famutimi&comma; Information Specialist&comma; Public Affairs Section&comma;PAS&comma; and made available to OpenLife&comma; the Mission stated that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;As we continue to prioritize the health and safety of our staff and customers&comma; processing student visas remains a high priority for the U&period;S&period; Mission in Nigeria&comma;” Country Consular Coordinator Tuller said&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We will increase the number of student visa appointments in May and June to ensure that we can offer appointments to as many students as possible&period; If your U&period;S&period; studies are scheduled to begin this Fall&comma; we encourage you to schedule your appointment as quickly as possible&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tuller explained that all student visa appointments must be booked through the U&period;S&period; Travel Docs website at www&period;ustraveldocs&period;com&sol;ng&sol;&period; She warned applicants against the use of third-party services&comma; including touts&comma; and fixers who broker visa appointments&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to her&comma; agents or third parties often seek to benefit by charging a fee for their services and they may not always provide the correct information&comma; which can harm an applicant’s chances of qualifying for the visa&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Both Nigeria and the United States benefit when Nigerian students study at one of our world-class educational institutions&period; To prepare for your U&period;S&period; educational opportunity&comma; we encourage you to check out EducationUSA Advising Centers at our American Spaces in Abuja&comma; Lagos&comma; Ibadan&comma; and Calabar&comma; or at educationUSA&period;state&period;gov&comma;” she added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nigeria sends more students to American colleges and universities than any other country in Africa and is the eleventh largest source worldwide of international students to the United States&period; In academic year 2019-2020&comma; a record-breaking number of nearly 14&comma;000 Nigerians pursued graduate and undergraduate degrees in the United States&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Over the last 21 years&comma; the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wsj&period;com&sol;">Education USA Advising Centers<&sol;a> in Nigeria have directly contributed to an increase in the number of highly qualified Nigerian applicants to U&period;S&period; institutions&period; In 2020&comma; advisees of Education USA services received scholarships worth &dollar;28 million&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Additional information on U&period;S&period; travel and student visas is available at travel&period;state&period;gov or ng&period;usembassy&period;gov&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;