(From Lizzy Okoji, NAN)
The United States (US) government has announced the removal of visa reciprocity fee for the non-immigrant visa categories or any visa class for Nigerian nationals effective from Dec 3.
The Public Affairs Department of the US Embassy in Abuja, which disclosed this in a statement on Saturday, said that reciprocity fees paid before that time were not refundable.
The embassy, however, stated that non-migrant visa applicants were still expected to pay $160 non-refundable Machine Readable Visa (MRV) fee.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that in 2019, the U.S. government imposed a reciprocity fee for all approved non-migrant visa applications by Nigerians.
“Effective Dec. 2, the reciprocity schedule for Nigeria changed to remove all reciprocity fees for the nonimmigrant visa categories. There are no reciprocity fees remaining on any visa class for Nigerian nationals.
“All non-immigrant visa applicants are still required to pay the $160 non-refundable MRV fee at the time of application. Reciprocity fees paid prior to Dec. 3 are not refundable.
“The removal of these reciprocity fees matches the Nigerian government’s removal of additional fees on U.S. citizens applying for Nigerian visas.
“For more information regarding fee schedules, please see the Bureau of Consular Affairs website: www.travel.state.gov.,” it stated.