Massive drop in the number of Nigerians visiting United States

There has been a huge drop in the number of Nigerians travelling to the United States.
This was confirmed by the data, from the United States Tourism and Travel office.

This massive drop in the number of Nigerians visiting United States, was caused by the increment of United States visa fees, for Nigerian applicants.

The number of Nigerian travellers started to decrease in the year 2016, after experiencing immense growth from 2011 and 2015, before massively dropping in 2019.

The Nigerians that travelled to the United States were reduced to about 34,000 as of October, 2019. A 21 per cent reduction.

Read Nigeria reduces the visa fees for US citizens seeking for visa to come into the country

The increase in visa fees, also known as the reciprocity fees

The reciprocity fee will be charged in addition to the non-immigrant visa application fee, also known as the MRV fee, which all applicants pay at the time of application, this was stated by the  United States Government.

It was speculated that the huge drop in Nigerian applicants was caused by a lot of implemented policies and visa clamp downs, experienced by Nigerians, in the Trump administration.

The policies also gave rise to anxiety and fear, fuelled rumours among indigenes,
causing the, the United States embassy in
Nigeria, in mid 2019, to deny a widespread
rumour that it had placed a ban on issuing
student visas to Nigerians.

Also read Questions, Answers, Advice and Insight, on U.S visiting visa

For example, 

The reciprocity fees

The new visa fee was increased from $80 to $303, and this was termed a reciprocity fee, because it was increased, in response to the
increased charges/fees imposed on the United States Citizens by the Nigerian Government.

Even after the Nigerian Government withdrew the extra charges and reduced the visa fees imposed on the United States applicants, the United State's Government refused to burg and reciprocate.

This was done and reduced in order to get the United State Government to reverse its price increase.
The increased visa fees has made it difficult for many Nigerians to apply for U.S visa.

Both the visa fees and the non immigrant fees are not refundable and their amounts are based on the visa classification and Nigerians whose applications for a non

immigrant visa was denied will not be
charged the new reciprocity fee.

Suspension of the interview waiver

The Trump administration also suspended its visa interview waiver for Nigerian applicants indefinitely.

The waiver allowed frequent travellers from Nigeria, to renew their visa without going through in-person interviews each time

Also read U.S increases the cost of visa fees for Nigerians

Noticeable visa clamp down

Report has also shown that Nigerians were the highest ranked African country for US visa overstays in 2018.

Because of these new policies, there has been several reports that the Trump administration was looking to put restrictions on issuance of visa to countries whose citizens, have a track record of overstaying after the expiration of their short-term US visas.

Even though official data confirm the effects of the measures, there were already warning signs the administration’s policies were having an adverse impact on potential
travellers.

The second largest  drop was for visitors
from Venezuela (17.7 per cent).
And the US is restricting entry to Venezuelans and Argentinians, migrants with 15.6 per cent drop and Sweden, 11.1 per cent.

Lots of people are exiting the south American country due to the political and economic crises, they are presently experiencing.