US imposes Visa ban on Nigeria, others

The US has suspended the issuance of visas that can lead to permanent residency for nationals of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and Nigeria.

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf revealed this during a call with reporters on Friday.

He said, nonimmigrant visas were not affected for the additional countries, Wolf said. Those visas are given to people travelling to the US for a temporary stay. They include visas for tourists, those doing business or people seeking medical treatment. During December, for example, about 650,760 nonimmigrant visas were granted worldwide.

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“The new immigration restrictions were designed to “address security concerns in the way the banned countries track their own citizens, share information with the U.S. and cooperate on immigration matters”.

Speaking further, Wolf said citizens from the affected countries would not be allowed to apply for visas to immigrate to the US under the policy the Trump administration said was designed to “tighten security for countries that don’t comply with the US minimum security standards or cooperate to prevent illegal immigration”.

However, the new restriction would apply only to new visa applications as immigrants who were issued valid visas before that date will still be able to move to the US.

It said the six countries would join a list of seven nations, most of them Muslim-majority, that faced significant travel restrictions under the original travel ban issued in 2017 by the Trump administration.