US travel ban: President Buhari to comply with Trump’s new visa rules

President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigeria will work to fix security challenges that caused the US visa ban to the country, Nigeria .

Buhari said he wants Nigeria to have “productive relations” with the US.

He has appointed a minister to lead a committee to “study and address” the new visa requirements.

Citizens from Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar are also barred from some types of US visas.

People from these countries will, however, still be able to visit the US as tourists.

US in 2018 issued more than 8,000 immigration visas to Nigeria citizens – twice as many as all the other five nations combined.

That same year, just over 2,000 were issued to Sudanese nationals, 290 to Tanzanians, and just 31 to Eritreans.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told reporters on Friday that: “These countries, for the most part, want to be helpful but for a variety of different reasons simply failed to meet those minimum requirements that we laid out.”

Mr Wolf said officials would work with the countries on bolstering their security requirements to help remove them from the list.

In a statement on Saturday by Buhari’s spokesperson, Femi Adesina, the US rules will come into effect on 21 February but will not apply to official, business and tourism visas.

“Nigeria remains committed to maintaining productive relations with the United States and its international allies, especially on matters of global security,” Femi Adesina said.

US President Donald Trump first introduced a travel ban in 2017. It currently closes US borders to citizens from seven countries, majorities were Muslims.

The US had previously announced a ban on certain types of visas for Eritreans in 2017.

The US said it would suspend the issuance of visas that can lead to permanent residency for nationals of Nigeria, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, and Myanmar.

Sudanese and Tanzanian nationals will no longer be allowed to apply for “diversity visas”, which are available by lottery for applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to the US.