Abimbola was excited to travel from her home in Nigeria to visit a friend in the United States she hadn’t seen in years. Abimbola, 27, who uses a fake name to avoid revealing his travel plans, applied for a U.S. tourist visa in August.
After paying a non-refundable application fee of $185, four times Nigeria’s monthly minimum wage of 70,000 naira (about $46), Abimbola was surprised to find his visa denied due to “insufficient financial accounts”.
“I understand that the U.S. government is doing everything possible to reduce immigration into its country,” Abimbola told Prism in a written response, but said she was still distressed by the large amount of money she lost on her visa application. Now she has decided not to try again. “Reapplying is a waste of time and resources.”
Weeks before Abimbola applied for his visa, the U.S. State Department announced on July 8 that it would shorten the validity of some visas for citizens of four sub-Saharan African countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and Ethiopia. Since then, nonimmigrant visa applicants from these countries have been able to enter the United States with only one entry for a three-month period, a significant change from previous U.S. visa policy that allowed multiple entries over two years.
This decision is not retroactive and affects applicants for B-1/B-2 nonimmigrant visas who visit the United States temporarily for business, tourism, pleasure, and medical purposes, respectively. Recently, Nigerian Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka declined a “strange and bizarre” invitation from the US Embassy in Nigeria for a “visa re-interview” scheduled for September 11th.
“The new rules will deter applicants, especially first-time applicants,” Mojeed Adegboye, who runs a travel agency called Studyhub Educonsult based in Ota, a town 32 miles from Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos, said via WhatsApp. “Those planning to stay for more than three months will be disappointed.”
Adegboye’s travel agency assists prospective visitors to the United States for study, business, and tourism purposes with the application process. He said that while the new rules do not have a direct impact on visa approvals, visa approval rates have fallen significantly since January, highlighting the seriousness of President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant stance.
But the State Department maintains that the deep cuts are in line with a “realignment of global reciprocity,” a claim strongly disputed by affected countries. For example, Nigeria claims it is still issuing multiple-entry visas to U.S. citizens, while the Ghanaian government emphasizes that it has issued more than 28,500 multiple-entry visas to Americans this year. U.S. citizens will also continue to be able to obtain visas for up to one year in Cameroon and up to 90 days in Ethiopia.
“The United States values our long-standing relationship with Nigeria and remains committed to expanding our partnership based on mutual respect, shared security priorities, and economic opportunity to keep our two countries safe and strong,” the U.S. Embassy and Consulate General in Nigeria said in a statement. “We commend the continued efforts of the Nigerian government’s immigration and security authorities to meet international best practice standards. We will continue to work with Nigerian government officials to address remaining challenges.”
The visa restrictions are the latest factor to spark resentment against President Trump in sub-Saharan Africa, where he has consistently enjoyed high approval ratings. Some lawmakers suggested the move was aimed at pressuring African countries to comply with U.S. wishes.
In July, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Yusuf Tugar said on Nigerian television in response to visa restrictions: “We will not bow to pressure from the Trump administration to accept Venezuelan deportees from the United States and prisoners of war from third countries.” President Trump had also threatened to impose 10% tariffs on Nigeria and other African countries because of their alliance with BRICS, an alliance of nearly a dozen countries including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Several African countries have been hit with tariffs since January as President Trump moved to correct unfair trade practices affecting U.S. manufacturers and products. This, along with the dissolution of the United States Agency for International Development and the end of U.S. humanitarian and health assistance on which many countries in sub-Saharan Africa depended, marked a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy.
Tager’s comments came in the wake of a report in the Wall Street Journal that cited an internal memo saying the Trump administration is asking leaders of Liberia, Senegal, Mauritania, Gabon and Guinea-Bissau, who recently met with Trump, to accept deported immigrants from the United States.
Earlier this month, Ghana, one of the four countries affected by the visa restrictions, appeared to bow to the pressure.
Ghanaian President John Mahama told the BBC: “We have been approached by the United States to accept third country nationals who have been deported by the United States, and we have agreed to accept West African nationals as well.”
This unfolding situation highlights the changing dynamics of U.S.-Africa relations in the era of President Trump’s “America First” foreign policy. Since taking office for the second time in January, Trump appears to have replaced traditional US foreign policy with transactional diplomacy.
Last month, at least three other African countries – Uganda, Rwanda and war-torn South Sudan – signed deals with the Trump administration to take in deportees from the United States. However, these countries already have their own huge economic and social problems, including internal displacement due to multiple armed conflicts.
This reflects the harsh reality facing sub-Saharan Africa – a resource-rich but poorest region in the world – and is the source of the resulting ‘migration crisis’.
“Many of the problems facing sub-Saharan Africa are not simply the product of the failures of local elites,” Nigerian public relations analyst Zikola Ibe told Prism in a written statement. “They also reflect the role of Western corporations and imperialist institutions, especially the Global North, including the United States, in primitive accumulation, hostile resource extraction, environmental plunder (sic), economic conquest, and political interference.”
Ibe said the surge in African immigration that President Trump is ostensibly trying to curb is a crisis entirely of American origin.
“Instead of making it harder for people fleeing poverty, war and persecution, we need a new world order based on equity, justice and justice,” Ibe added.
From 1980 to 2019, the population of sub-Saharan African immigrants in the United States rapidly increased from approximately 130,000 to approximately 2.1 million. The phenomenon, known locally in Nigeria as “japa” or “flight” in the language spoken by the Yoruba people in the southwestern part of the country, captures the desperation behind the surge. Nigeria has the largest share of the African immigrant population in the United States The West African oil giant is also the seventh largest source of international students to the United States
International students applying to study at U.S. universities, including those from the four African countries subject to President Trump’s visa restrictions, will also face new rules that all international students applying for F-1/F-2 visas will be subject to stricter screening, including forced access to their social media activity, for “signs of hostility toward the people, culture, government, institutions, or founding ideals of the United States.”
However, as Abimbola’s experience showed, Japan is not the only reason Africans apply for American visas. Sometimes you just want to reconnect with friends and family.
Ibe said that while national security may be the official policy behind the visa cuts, “you only have to look at what is happening in the United States to question whether that is the real reason.”
“The truth is that there is a growing trend toward harmful nationalism, and many of the policies we are seeing now are manifestations of that trend,” Ibe said. He also noted that the policy would unfairly target vocal public commentators and activists who use social media for social advocacy and critical engagement.
“Profiling of African migrants in no way reduces national insecurity,” Ayo Ademiluyi, a Nigeria-based immigration lawyer, told Prism. He said the United States can guarantee national security only by preventing U.S.-backed Israeli bombing of Gaza and other military aggression against sovereign nations.
Editorial team:
Sahar Fatima, Chief Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Rashmi Kumar, Copy Editor
