Nigerian Embassy

[ewaO 0]

I am a black American woman in love with a Nigerian. We fell in love almost immediately. I was visiting in London and we met. He went back to Nigeria and I came back home. We have remained in contact and grew even more in love over the last 6 months. He wants to come here. I had no idea that it was so difficult to travel from Nigeria to the U.S. He went to the embassy and was denied. I sent an email asking why and after about a week the response was that he did not prove socio-economic ties to Nigeria to return back after his visit. Since then he has obtained a letter from his family regarding his employment in the family business and thru email they have said that these documents are acceptable to prove soci-economic ties to Nigeria . Actually we are planning to marry here for my family and return to Nigeria and marry there as well for his family. He was very upset and disappointed. I sent another email to the embassy they finally referred me to a website that gave me the information that he can present to correct this. My question is has anyone experienced this before? or are we the only two people in the world? We are both really reluctant and trying to find the right information to get this taken care of for him to obtain his Visa. He lived in London for 3 years and it was no problem but to come to the U.S has been very difficult in getting a visa.

I am open to any and all suggestions....Please help.

[k_quandary 0]

ewa0,

Hi. Welcome to visajourney. Yes, a tourist visa seems to be hard to come by if the tourist is coming from many countries in Africa. Proving ties to the home country is a big hurdle; the evidence includes a job where the employer will show that they think/know you are returning, owning a house, etc. I tried it (to get a tourist visa for my now husband) and I do not think it works very well if it is a family business, because their is an incentive for the family to say whatever the tourist wants them to say.

Anyway, you mentioned getting married, which involves a totally different visa process. If you want him to come here and get married, then you will have to apply for a K-1 visa. If you want to get married before he comes to the U.S. then you will have to apply for a K-3, CR-1, etc. I only know about the K-1 visa because that is the route I chose. Just be mindful that he will not be able to come to the U.S. on a tourist visa with the intent to immigrate because that is considered visa fraud.

There are some other visajourney (VJ) members that have loved ones in Nigeria. Come visit us in the Africa:Sub-Saharan forum . And, good luck!!

K.