US Embassy Closes Indefinitely, Visa Seekers To Miss Appointments​

Many Nigerians who applied for US visa will miss their appointments as the United States embassy in Abuja and its consulate in Lagos have shutdown indefinitely.

With this development, applicants for tourist, study, business visas, immigrant visas or any other travel document ,will not be attended to.

The US embassy in Nigeria said in a Facebook post that the development was caused by the government shutdown in the US.

According to the statement, “Due to the current US government shutdown, the American centres located in the embassy, Abuja and Consulate-General, Lagos are unfortunately closed. They will re-open once the US government shutdown is resolved. Sorry for any inconvenience to our valued patrons.”

President Donald Trump-led executive and the US legislative had clashed over Trump’s attempt to build a wall along the Mexican border.

Building a wall was one of Trump’s major campaign promises as part of efforts to curb illegal migration and crime.

During his campaign, Trump had threatened that the Mexican government would pay for the wall.

But after the Mexican government refused to fund the wall, Trump approached the US legislature, requesting for $5 billion to fund the wall.

The Congress, however, rejected Trump’s proposal.

On December 11, Trump held a televised meeting with Speaker-designee, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, in which he asked them to support $5billion in funding for the border wall but they rejected his request.

“I am proud to shut down the government for border security … I will be the one to shut the government down. I’m not going to blame you for it … I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down,” Trump reportedly said.

However, Politico later reported that Trump was willing to sign a bill that delayed a government shutdown into 2019 and the new Congress.