No fewer than 21,476 Nigerians have overstayed their visas to the United States within the last one year, Per second news media reports on Thursday.
It said that information it gathered from Washington indicated that those who overstayed include students, workers and tourists, with increase in numbers of those that has refused to return to Nigeria.
Illegal immigration by overstaying a visa has been shown to outweigh a number of people entering by an illegal border crossing.
More than 700,000 foreigners who were supposed to leave the United States during a recent 12-month period overstayed their visas, according to U.S Department of Homeland Security ‘ Fiscal Year 2017 Entry/Exit Overstay Report.
185,375 Nigerian visitors were expected to depart after their stay, with 630 of them overstaying their visas, while 19,046 visitors and business men and women refused to return to Nigeria and residing illegally inside the United States.
In the report obtained, a total 9,245 students were expected to depart the U.S after their studies with 258 returning to Nigeria after overstaying their visas, while 2,172 refused to return and are currently residing illegally in the U.S.
Canada again occupied the top slot for overstays, followed by Mexico, Venezuela, the United Kingdom and Colombia.
Nigeria, China, France, Spain and Germany rounded out the top 10.
President Donald Trump has focused border security efforts on erecting a multibillion-dollar wall with Mexico. But the latest annual figures underscore how visa overstays are a big driver of illegal immigration.
An estimated 40 percent of the roughly 11 million people in the country illegally stayed past their visas.
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
