VISA ROBBERY: HOW BRITISH EMBASSY IS DEFRAUDING NIGERIANS OF BILLIONS OF NAIRA
3 min read
Though the era of colonialism has gone, the British government through its embassy has perfected another way to colonize Nigerians and defraud them of money which runs into billions of naira and the strategy it uses is simple: it capitalizes on the desperation of Nigerians to travel abroad to extort money from them on a daily basis not minding whether the applicant is genuine or not.
Those who have fallen victims of this high-wired fraud narrated that the embassy without recourse to checking the applications, refused the visa on flimsy excuses that they do not possess all the necessary documents needed and that if granted the application there are no guarantees that they would come back to Nigeria.
According to one of the victims who occupies the post of assistant director in one of the multinational companies (names withheld), in the course of renewing his visa having travelled to UK on several occasions both on official and personal capacities and in his bid to apply for a two-year visa, he got the shock of his life when he was refused on the pretext that he wanted to run away from the county even when all his documents were genuine.
He narrated: “This thing is not funny. Having collected my N72,000, my application was refused and what pains me most was their claim that I wanted to run away. At my level why would I want to run away? To go and do what in the UK?” He said further that “this is not my first time of my going to the UK and my sin is just that I applied for a two-year visa.”
Another man, a businessman who was invited to attend an event in UK also got his application refused by the entry clearance officer who simply stated that the man did not know why he wanted to travel to UK even after attaching the invitation letter from the organization that invited him for the event.
He declared that it simply proved that they were not checking the applications again but just printed any refusal letter that suits the ECO (entry clearance officer) and the application fee paid gone down the drain.
Global News investigation shows that these two examples are just a few among millions of those Nigerians whose applications are refused without proper investigation by the British Embassy to ascertain whether the application is genuine or not and the status of the applicants, thereby treating every Nigerian like a criminal.
An expert disclosed that if the amount of money that Nigerians are losing to this daylight fraud and robbery is calculated, it would amount to several millions of naira on a daily basis considering the number applications being received every day from different VFS locations where they submit their applications.
Using these indices, if 1000 applicants are refused daily from the number of applications received on a daily basis (though more than this apply for a six month short term entry at a cost of N21,060), the total money generated on that day is N21,060,000 and in 22 working days it amounts to N463,320,000 and in one year it amount to N5,559,840,000 just for six-month applications refused.
For a long term visa for two years, the application fee is N72, 900 and also using the same 1000 applicants refused on a daily basis, the total money generated daily is N72,900,000 and in 22 days it amounts to N1,603,800,000 while in one year it amounts N192,456,869,000
This fraud goes on and on depending on the type of application and other categories is as follows:
Long term valid up to 5 years…….N133,920 .00
Long term valid up to 10 years……N193, 320.00
And for settlement the application fee starts from N223, 020.00 to N499, 500.00
This is the chain used by the British Embassy defraud Nigerians of their hard earned .
Before i share my experience which is still on-going with the embassy, I’m not disputing the fact that some Nigerians commits the highest level of fraud to get a visa. But, should the genuine ones suffer badly for it too?
I’m also a victim. I’ve been granted 2 visas for the same purpose twice (Spouse visit – 6 months & 2 yrs). When i applied for Settlement N210,000, I was refused. 2 reasons given by the ECO was that ” 1. He’s not convinced that i wanted to settle down in the UK. 2. That i refused 2 present the August 2012 statement of my spouse Acc. Well known to him/her, that the Documents were gathered before the end of August.
The Misery continued when we forwarded an appeal, within 5 days. The documents was been forwarded to the British Deputy High Commission in Lagos within 2 weeks of our application, for a review by the Tribunal in the UK. The embassy confirmed the receipt, on 12th of November, 2012. They only have less than 2 weeks left 2 overturn their decision or return the appeal back to the tribunal for Court Hearing.
You won’t believe it, that when i called the embassy on the 15th of Feb, 2013. They’ve not even put it forward to an Entry Clearance Manager (ECM) for review . I’m wondering how they’ll investigate and take the right decision within 2 weeks they have left. That shows there’s a hidden agenda.
Good analysis.
You have not added that since January 2014 they have included Tuberculosis test for all Nigerians and the fee is $130 per applicants through the IOM (also owned by the UK embassy), not withstanding the visa type and year required, children under age 11 are made to pay as well but eventually not tested for Tuberculosis.
Nigerian government need to do something about it.
UK is one if the worst western countries to live in, yet they think all Nigerians want to relocate their. I believe they are not any better than Nigeria and their economy largely depends on spendings from Nigerians, some Middle Esstern countries and Russians. If people from this countries decide to boycott the UK, their economy will be doom.
Nigerians need to boycott the UK and instead try other countries in EU and elsewhere with better economy and more friendly disposition towards Nigerians.
how do i go about to apply for visiting visa to the uk the amount to be paid how to download the forms the modalities and the requirements cos i av gone to vfs i was told i should dop it online and i have triedwithout success
My sister has just been refused visa application after paying 75, 000 Naira to the embassy. She was refused on the basis that she will be unable to sustain herself in the UK despite the fact that I had wrote an invitation letter detailing that it is an all paid for holiday and had provided my bank details and balance and employment record.
Reason for refusal also stated that there is no evidence of paying herself from the business she owns
These clearly shows the clearing officer do not check the forms before giving their refusal notice. To my shock, my sister was told in her refusal letter that there is no right of appeal.
Any suggestion as to what to do- suggestions please.
There is no right to appeal but there is right to complain. Go under the British embassy website and make a complain and they will look into it. In my family friends case they gave a refusal to him based on another persons passport and banned him for 10 years because they said he submitted a fake passport. After sending a complaint it was resolved but he was still refused on the grounds that the bank testified that the statement of account was not authentic. So on that grounds he was refused. I still want to follow up the account issue. We went to the bank head quarters and they said there was no comment like that. I am still on the process of sorting out the bank issue with them.