Welcome to our 2020 edition of visa hacks. If you have tried to secure visa in the past with no success, then you need to bookmark this page as we are about to tell you how to do it right in 2020. Also, if you will be applying for visa soon, then this Visa Hacks is a must-read for you to make a successful application. In this article, we are about to reveal what the embassy won’t publicly admit, but knowing this can make you get better of them in every future application for visa.

There are various categories of visa and the most applied categories are family/friend visit visa, tourist visa, business/conference/training visa, and study visa. Over 97% percent of visa consultation services rendered by NGabroad in 2019 always fall in one of the afforementioned categories.

 

Being the biggest and most visited visa consultant company in Nigeria, NGabroad has access to a large sample data of visa approval and refusal statistics, which has reshaped and continue to shape our approach to visa consultation services, thereby leading to more success stories from our clients.

We have assisted many individuals, families and corporate travelers to put their documents together for visa application, and after consultation for the clients, we follow up with most applications and were able to get enough information to establish some facts as to which applicants are likely to be approved and those that are likely to be denied.

 

We understood that majority of Nigerians simply wants to travel for either business, tourism or greener pasture. Many of these people get denied due to one reason or the other. Now I want you to pay attention to the next paragraph as we are about to give you some facts about visa application that must not be overlooked in 2020.

Fact 1 – Not every visa category are treated equally

 

If Mr. A applied for a tourist visa and he has an exact profile with Mr. B who applied for a visa to attend a training in the same country, our analyses of 2019 visa data confirm that Mr. B is likely to be given preferential treatment, Let us tell you why?

Due to the economic situation of the country leading to the rise in inflation figures, traveling for vacation is becoming more and more unaffordable for most Nigerians. Sometimes ago, someone earning between NGN100-200k is actually earning enough to afford a trip to Europe. Now, the cost of traveling has tripled and to visit any European country or even African country via flight, you would need to budget over  NGN500-600k. How can you justify spending over 4 months’ salary on a short holiday? This has become a red flag and most embassies are beginning to deny tourist applications. Secondly, even when you have the financial means, an application can still be refused as the visa officers know quite well that going for a vacation is an optional activity, and you can always spend your money elsewhere. If you apply to go for tourism in France, visa officer believes that, as a matter of alternatives, you can equally go to Dubai or even visit tourist attractions in Nigeria. But what difference did we observe if you were to go for either conference, training or study?

We noticed an increase in visa approval rates if your purpose of trip is aligned with one of these. We tried to make sense of this and we concluded that conference, training or study purpose is related to self-development which is very important to business/career growth. Consular would be very careful and make sure that all documents are properly vetted before giving a decision on the application. These are the purpose of trip that even when refused would have a good ground for appeal. Imagine having a conference or training in your career field to attend in London. It might so happen that the training is done yearly and only in London, if such application for a visa to attend were to be refused, the consular would be denying you career growth and you can take the matter up and appeal the decision with a competent immigration lawyer. Embassies always avoid this kind of issue, so they ensure to dot all i’s and cross all t’s before making a decision in such a case.

 

Fact 2: Applicants with virgin passport should avoid tourist visa application by all means if they could

 

This is a deduction from the fact above. If you have a virgin passport, it means you have no previous immigration record that can vouch for you. This implies that embassies will be very reluctant to trust you. Therefore, get someone to invite you (family/friend visit visa), go for training, conference, or get a registered business to invite you for a business meeting. If all this is not easy for you and you still insist on going with a tourist visa, then ensure to buy a paid tour and get the tour company to give you a tour voucher that can be used to support your travel intentions.

 

Fact 3: Purpose of trip with invitation letter is gold

 

Whatever the purpose of trip is, you should ensure to have an invitation letter to back it up.

 

Fact 4: Age matters

 

This is a sad truth. Even we don’t know what to advise in this regard as it is just unfair from the perspective of the embassy to consider age. We have observed that below 30 years find it hard to secure a tourist visa. It is a little better though if the purpose is a business visit.

 

Fact 5: Age matters too for study visa

 

Embassies consider the age of applicants too if you are going to study. For undergraduate studies, applicants with age less than 20 are usually successful while masters have no age limit as you can decide to go for masters after working for many years. To make sense of this, we notice some schools don’t even want to issue admission to a student with a large study gap which is very common for aged students going for undergraduate studies. Imagine someone that did waec over 5 years ago now considering undergraduate studies. That is a study gap of 5 years. It would be assumed that there is no way he will be able to remember most of what he knows when he did the waec. If you manage to get schools that will offer admission, the embassy is another body you need to convince before getting to your final destination. An exception to this is a few countries with high tuition fees. Countries like the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands have high tuition of about 6m upward, so it is not a popular destination for students looking for affordable study abroad options thus creating less competition. For these reasons, whatever the age or study gap, student can get visa to these destinations with ease.

 

Fact 6: Travel history still works

 

Yes, like it is in most things in life, first time is always the toughest. After that, it gets easier. The same can be inferred with getting a visa. Applicants with virgin passports always find it hard to get visa. Also, not all previous travel has equal weight. Destinations like Europe is rated more than Asia and Africa.

 

Fact 7: United states of America and Schengen countries have the most ridiculous refusal reasons

Despite being the most popular destinations, these countries have no patience to analyses individual purpose of refusal, hence if you happen to get refused by either USA or a Schengen country, you will find it difficult to know the real reason the application was refused. These countries already have a refusal template that they normally give all applicants regardless of an individual’s application unique circumstances. For Schengen countries, over 90 percent of refusal reason fall under two categories:

  • Justifications for the purpose and conditions of intended stay was not provided
  • The information submitted regarding the justifications for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay was not reliable

So, if you have seen this before, don’t worry, it is just the embassy being funny, they simply don’t have a tangible reason to refuse your application.

For the United States visa application, regardless of the reason for refusal, you will get a letter, the same letter they give everyone.

 

 

Now that you know the facts that affect visa applications, what next?

We would not want to leave you all by yourself, thinking how can you overcome visa challenges in 2020 with all these facts staring at you, therefore we have some recommendations for you.

 

Recommendations when applying for a visa in 2020

 

  • Prepare for the visa application by reading about the application process and required documents on NGabroad blog page
  • To avoid visa refusal, you should be aware of the reasons that your visa application might be refused by reading our article on Visa application refusal reasons. Do not mind that we said Schengen countries in the article, it is pretty much applicable to all countries.
  • Over 80 percent of visa refusals are due to bank statements. Having a good statement of account is as important as the decision to apply or not apply. We suggest you should read our article on  HOW TO GET AN AN IDEAL BANK STATEMENT FOR VISA.
  • If you are applying for a business visa such as attending a conference or seminar, you should see our article on Top places to get a conference for visa application.
  • Let our visa eligibility test application analyze your chances of getting the visa by taking NGabroad visa eligibility test HERE
  • If you have a virgin passport, rather than applying for a tourist visa, try to go with a better purpose of trip such as business visit, conference, family/friend visit or training and you should ensure to get an invitation letter to support your purpose of trip. If you cannot find a program to give you an invitation letter, you can still apply for a tourist visa but you should try to book a paid tour so that the tour operator can send you a tour voucher that can be used to support your application. Many tours are refundable so you should not be scared of investing on a paid tour to improve your chances of getting the visa. This might not be necessary if you have traveled to a first world country before.

 

  • Ensure to apply at least 2 months before your travel date, this will allow the embassy ample time to vet your documents with the issuing bodies.

 

  • NGabroad has a solution that is tailor-made to make your visa application a success. Our visa order form allows you to let a professional handle the following part of your application for you. We don’t insist to handle everything but we strongly recommend you to allow NGabroad to handle any part of the application that you do not feel confident doing by yourself. Any of the following can be gotten from NGabroad
  1. Hotel reservation for visa for ₦5,000 only
  2. Flight reservation for visa, get it for FREE
  3. Travel insurance starting from ₦5,250 only
  4. Visa application form filling services for ₦10,000 only
  5. Cover letter for ₦5,000 only
  6. Appointment booking for FREE.
  7. Consultation services for FREE. Yes, if you have placed an order from us, we will be available to give you the best hint and advises to ensure a successful application.

Getting any of these items would allow you to get free consultation services. If you are on a tight budget and you still want to benefit from NGbabroad free consultation services to improve your visa chances, then you can just order for one of the items and try to get others done by yourself. To place your order now, use the form below or click here to go to the main order page