Editor: I will appreciate your kind permission to bring my experiences on visa application to the Canadian High Commission in Nigeria to public attention.
In 2011, I applied to the Canadian High Commission in Nigeria for temporary resident visas for my family and I to visit Canada for Christmas holidays. We were denied visas on the ground that we would not return to Nigeria after the expiration of the visas if granted. Nothing could be further from the truth than this spurious and flimsy reason.
This year 2012, I applied again for visas for the same purpose. Among the supporting documents was a letter of invitation from my wife’s cousin in Saskatoon, Canada (a Canadian citizen) in which he gave an undertaking to ensure that we return to Nigeria after our holiday. Inexplicably, the applications were turned down for the same reason as last year, which is that the family will not return after the expiration of the visas if granted.
All these were despite the overwhelming evidences that my family and I have been travelling out of Nigeria for annual holidays in Europe, Middle East and other African countries without any incidents and returning to our jobs and routine activities in Nigeria. On each occasion we were denied visas, we were told the applications were closed and the fees paid were non-refundable.
I am appealing to the Nigerian Government to come to the aid of all Nigerian visa applicants who have genuine reasons to visit Canada but are unjustifiably denied visas for very flimsy and untenable reasons by prevailing on the Canadian High Commission in Nigeria to do the right thing.
Granting visas to genuine applicants should not be at the whim of one officer but strictly on the merit of each application.
Adeniyi Ekisola,
Abuja, FCT.
