US EMBASSY CAUTIONS NIGERIANS AGAINST VISA LOTTERY

The United States Embassy has cautioned Nigerians over its (US) Diversity Visa Lottery, saying that applicants need to be cautious about illegal activities of some agents who are not recognised by the embassy.

While addressing journalists Thursday, the embassy’s Vice-Consul, Miss Rachel Okunubi, stated that individual applicants can handle the process themselves instead of involving agents who defraud them.

She pointed out that ‘the Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme is a two-stage process: the Diversity Visa (DV Lottery) and the visa interview, saying that the entry must include exact biographical data on the entrant and all immediate family members as the time of submission.

On why many winners of the programme are denied entry visa to the United States, Okunubi stated that experiences have shown that many applicants improperly fill the application forms thus lacking coherence for factual documentation.

She added that many applicants use forged documents all in an effort to convince the consular officer who usually detect such during the interview session, saying that winners should, however unattractive their documents are, attend the interview the way they are.

While explaining that the minimum education requirement is high school, she pointed out that that is enough qualification, hence no need to fabricate numerous certificates to convince consular officer.

She stated that any winner, who come up with fake spouse, as being presently experienced at the consulate, stands a chance of being permanently denied entry visa to the United States as the offence is considered grave and taken seriously against the applicant.

Source: Thisday