Many Nigerians are being swindled of millions of naira daily by agents who promise to facilitate visa process for them, as many youngsters and even older ones desperately seek to leave the country.
Aviationmediaafrica.com investigations reveal that hundreds of Nigerians seek for US visa interview appointment dates, which has become elusive in the past five years; that applicants are given appointment one or even two years ahead.
In order to even secure a date, agents could charge as much as N500, 000 to N1, 000, 000 and applicants would be willing to pay; so these agents rake in huge amounts of money from Nigerians seeking to obtain visa and leave the country.
A senior Nigerian Immigration Officer told aviationmediaafrica.com that there is high demand of visa by Nigerians who wish to travel to different countries of the world but Canada and the United States are the countries in the highest demand.
Ironically, only 10-15 per cent of those who apply for visa and pay visa fees are usually allowed; so, the others lose their money because money is never refunded when visa request is rejected.
“Nigerians are demanding to leave the country. But the problem is that they spend so much money to apply for visa but only a small percentage of them like 10 to 15 will be given visa and the others are rejected and their monies gone. They are being ripped off by agents who promise to help them obtain visa. They demand a lot of money from them, even when they know that the chances of their now clients to obtain visa is slim. Most often it is the old men and women that receive visas more, especially when they are going to meet their children because they believe that it is the duty of children to take care of their parents,” the Immigration officer told Aviationmediaafrica.com.
A protocol official in a major government agency in the aviation industry, told Aviationmediaafrica.com that if one applies for US visa today one may get appointment date sometime in 2026 or 2027, but if the candidate pays an agent about N500 to N1, 000, 000, the candidate could get a date of about two months from the date of the request..
“That was the system we me. Visa fee is really not much but it is high because of the exchange rate, but where there is problem is when you want to get date. Sometimes we meet some guys we call agents. According to them, they do not sleep. The spend the whole night seeking to get a date for their clients. We pay them to get dates. But in the last few years it was easier but since 2022, it has become very tough to get dates. You will be talking about two years, if you ate lucky,” he said.
But the protocol official also told Aviationmediaafrica.com that the US visa office is upgrading their system and it is now easier to obtain appointment date for visa interview in Abuja, although it is still tough in Lagos.
Aviationmediaafrica.com also learnt that the agents also work to help applicants obtain visa of other countries and they are raking in millions of Naira because of the obsession of Nigerians to leave the country.
A UNESCO publication of a study carried out on why Nigerian youngsters are obsessed with the desire to leave the country, identified many factors, which include unemployment, insecurity and viewing of migration as survival strategy.
The report indicated that Nigerian youths constitute one of the largest populations among migrants travelling from countries of the Global South to Europe and these young people expressed fear of the future, and viewed migration as a survival strategy to escape an existence of poverty and powerlessness. The study also included youths who had left the country and then returned – either voluntarily, or because they had been deported.
The report also disclosed that Nigerians have an idealized view of life in western countries, which is often at the heart of the immigration plan.
“Respondents generally believed that those who had successfully migrated enjoyed a better quality of life. ‘Those who migrate outside the country often live far better than we do in Nigeria. They have constant power supply, better weather, eat a good diet, and are relatively safe,’ ‘ a 29-year-old unemployed woman indicated in the study.
“Their attitudes were also influenced by radio, television, music, and other popular culture and media portrayals of destination countries. ‘Been to’, the popular term for people who have visited foreign continents, especially Europe and America, conferred a level of social status. A returnee migrant at a social gathering was seen to add glamour and prestige. Information about destination countries – which was often exaggerated or inaccurate – came from informal sources like friends, relatives, and social media,” the study revealed.
But Aviationmediaafrica.com also revealed that it is not only youngsters that are migrating; so also, are families with parents in their 40s and 50s and even older. This has upped the demand for visa of various countries, especially Canada, US, UK, and many other European nations and visa agents are smiling to the bank.
“Visa agents are making money now. Many years ago, they were like touts, but today they are making money and their problem is greed. They will assure applicants that they will help them get visa, they may collect advance payment of N300, 000 or N400, 000 even when they know that the chance of the applicant getting the visa is about 10 per cent. They also hide certain information from the applicant and ask him or her to pay for the information. But this can be avoided if the applicants go to the country’s website and ready the requirements for visa, instead of depending on the visa agent. But many of them ate usually desperate. They will tell you they have been denied visa in the past, some agents had swindled them but they continue to patronize the agents because of their desperation to leave the country,” an official who works in the Protocol department of aviation agency told Aviationmediaafrica.com.
Aviationmediaafrica.com also learnt that the demand for passport by Nigerians has tripled since last year.
“If you see the number of people demanding international passports, you will know the desperation of many Nigerians to leave this country is high. And many, millions have already left since 2015. That was when this astronomical demand started,” an Immigration official told Aviationmediaafrica.com.
