by Isi Esene

The United States Consulate on Tuesday said the reason many visa applicants get their applications rejected is because they are yet to visit other countries.

The vice-consul, US Consulate, Christopher Richardson said this while speaking at a program tagged, ‘American Visa Regime: the role of lawyers’ organised by the Immigration Lawyers Forum (ILF) in Lagos.

“The majority of the visa applicants prefer the US as their first outing. This creates doubt, especially when the applicant has not visited any other countries before,” he said.

Richardson also said applicants were also rejected visas because of the kind of answers they give to test questions during interviews.

He reportedly said, “When a question, such as ‘do you have a relation in the US?’ Most often, they are quick to say ‘yes’, which of course, is in order.

“Such an answer creates doubt that since the person has a relation, there is every tendency that the person may not want to come back. So visas can be rejected on that ground.”

Titus Ajijola, the ILAF chairman said the seminar was designed to enhance the protection of migrant rights.

“Key strategies of the project are awareness raising, knowledge and skills improvement on the rules, as well as rights and obligations of migrants to encourage respect for the rights of migrants,” he said.

He said ILAF was designed to educate the general public on immigration matters.