The Federal Government has approved the reduction of visa charges payable by US citizens in line with the reciprocity policy.

This comes after the United States increased the cost of visa application for Nigerians.

With the reduction in visa charges United States citizens will now pay $160 from its initial $180.

The development was sequel to the new visa regime announced by the US Government on Tuesday, stating that Nigerians applying for US visas will be required to pay a visa issuance fee, or reciprocity fee, with effect from August 29.

Nigerians are required to pay a fee called visa ‘issuance fee’, or ‘reciprocity fee’, for all applications for non-immigrant visas in B, F, H1B, I, L, and R visa classifications.

The issuance/reciprocity fee is different from the application fees as this will be charged in addition to the non-immigrant visa application fee.

However, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola in a statement by the Director Press and  Public Relations, Mohammed Manga, said that “the Ministry acknowledges that there were engagements with the United States Embassy on the issue and in the aftermath, a Committee was set up to conduct due diligence in line with the Ministry’s extant policy on reciprocity of Visa fees”.

“The Committee had concluded its assignment and submitted a Report but the issuance of authorisation for its recommendations was delayed due to transition processes in the Ministry at the policy level”.

“The Honourable Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has approved the decrease of Visa charges payable by US citizens in line with reciprocity policy as recommended by the Committee”.

“Accordingly, the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede, has been directed to implement the decrease in Nigeria’s Visa charges to US Citizens with effect from Thursday, 29th August, 2019”.