6 days ago
New limits for Nigerian travelers squeeze families and businesses in U.S.
The State Department's move to limit Nigerian travelers to three-month, single-entry visas last week has Nigerian Americans and immigrant communities scrambling to navigate the sudden shift in travel policy and its rippling effects.
The tighter restrictions apply only to nonimmigrant and nondiplomatic travelers, who were previously allowed multiple entries to the U.S., for five years in most cases, per visa application.
Olatunde Johnson, a 27-year-old photographer, said that his aunts and uncles in Nigeria run multiple Airbnb rentals in Chicago that will now be tougher for them to monitor, and that he feels unable to help because he lives in New Jersey.
'They will have to keep reapplying and doing that again. Also, you're losing money in the process of that. So it's just unnecessary,' he said.
The State Department justified the decision, saying it was aimed at reaching 'visa reciprocity' between the U.S. and Nigeria. However, the Nigerian government denied that there is an imbalance and said its relationship with the U.S. has been reciprocal and still is.
'Contrary to misinformation and fake news circulating online, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has never stopped issuing 5-year multiple-entry visas for US citizens, in accordance with the principle of subsisting bilateral agreements and reciprocity,' the government said in a statement.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
Rep. Jonathan Jackson, a Democrat from Illinois who represents part of Chicago and who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, touted the city's 'strong and dynamic Nigerian diaspora.'
'Many have deep roots here and equally deep ties to Nigeria — family, businesses and investments,' Jackson said. 'When we make it harder for them to travel back and forth, to manage their affairs, or even just to visit loved ones, we are not just impacting individuals, we are weakening the very bonds that enrich both our nations.'
The State Department's move is part of a multipronged effort under the Trump administration to crack down on immigration to the United States in general. This includes a full ban on travelers from 12 countries and a partial ban on seven others. Nigerians are not banned from entering the U.S., but the restrictions apply mostly to travelers from countries in Africa and the Middle East.
Johnson said he thinks the visa decision by the Trump administration is 'spreading out a whole lot of stress and unnecessary pain.' He said getting a visa to the U.S. had already been difficult for Africans, and the administration is making entry requirements even more strict.
As a region, African countries had the highest rate of F-1 student visa denials in the world from 2015 to 2022, according to a study released last year by Shorelight and the President's Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, both nonprofits that support international students on U.S. campuses. Last year, 46.5% of Nigerian applicants for temporary business visas were denied, according to State Department records.
Bobby Digi Olisa, 51, who lives in New York, said the new restrictions will affect how often he sees his siblings, who aren't U.S. citizens and live in Nigeria. He is particularly concerned about his siblings' ability to afford multiple visa applications each year to visit the U.S.
'It will cause hardship with all of the ballooning costs,' he said.
Currently visa applicants must pay a $185 fee to enter the U.S. for tourist, business, student and exchange visas, among others. Starting Oct. 1, there will be an additional $250 Visa Integrity Fee, which will increase with inflation, per the Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Ovigwe Eguegu, a policy analyst at Development Reimagined, an international consulting firm with a focus on Africa, said complaints over family reunification from Olisa and others will not put enough pressure on the U.S. government for it to reverse course, but he thinks it will affect how the Nigerian government responds.
Eguegu said families like Olatunde Johnson's will be affected due to their long-term ties to the U.S., which require about five entries throughout the year for business. However, he cautions, 'wait time for visa processing is very, very long, and it costs a serious amount of money, too. So the preference has always been for multiple re-entry over a long period of time, as opposed to single entry capped at three months of a maximum stage.'
Jackson said the restrictions, more broadly, weakened people-to-people ties and undermined effective diplomacy.
'My travels have taught me that true diplomacy and strong international relations are built on understanding, trust and facilitating human connection,' Jackson said. 'We must find a way to address any legitimate security concerns without undermining the critical economic and cultural bridges that link communities like Chicago with Nigeria.'
Johnson's frustration is being echoed throughout the world toward the Trump administration. 'We the people, wherever you are, we're always the ones losing when the government is playing games,' he told NBC News.
But despite the 'pain' inflicted on Nigerians, Olisa stressed: 'This too shall pass, we shall overcome.'
