Trump officially imposes immigrant visa ban to keep Nigerians out of US

The travel ban will take effect on February 22, 2020.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and United States' President Donald Trump met at the White House in April 2018 to strengthen ties, but the US president has now slammed the door in the face of Nigerians seeking permanent residency in the North African country [White House Media]

The President of the United States of America, Donald Trump has imposed an immigrant visa ban on six countries including Nigeria.

This means Nigerians who want to relocate to the US to seek greener pastures won’t be able to do so anymore.

According to New York Times, the Trump administration added Nigeria to the list of countries facing travel ban on Friday, January 31, 2020.

The five other countries are Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar.

An official of the United States government disclosed to the NYT that Nigeria and Tanzania were added to the list because of the number of people who come from the African countries on a visa and end up illegally staying in the United States.

However, the travel ban may not necessarily affect the regular visitor and other non-immigration visas, although there may be restrictions.

According to the acting secretary of the department of homeland security, Chad Wolf, the ban is meant 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”.

New York Times reports that the ban will take effect on February 22, 2020.