US and Britain : rake in more than Sh270 million each year from Kenyans in visa application fees.
Posted On Monday, July 16, 2007 at at Monday, July 16, 2007 by UnknownNairobi
And not all people who pay the money end up travelling; many are turned away- without a visa or refund.
And they will have to pay the application fee again if they reapply.
The press attaché at the US embassy in Nairobi, Ms Jeniffer Barnes, confirms that the mission interviews about 24,000 Kenyans every year for all types of non-immigrant visas, most of them for visitors and tourists. About 4,000 applicants are interviewed annually for immigrant and diversity (Green Card) visas.
Ms Barnes says the mandatory $100 (Sh7,200) visa fee “covers the cost of processing visa applications” while an extra $20 (Sh1,440) is a reciprocity fee for a visitor’s visa.
This means that the 28,000 Kenyans who annually apply for US visas pay more than Sh200 million to the US government.
This is a conservative figure because some types of visa attract higher charges.
At the British high commission, press officer Stella Ondimu says the mission does not have records of how many Kenyans apply for visas to travel to the UK every year.
But figures released two years ago showed that the consular section interviewed between 45 and 60 people every working day. If the higher figure were applicable today, this would translate to more than 15,000 applicants each year, paying a non-refundable fee of Sh4,700 each. This would translate to about Sh70 million annually.
Both the British and the American visa fee totals are worked out on a much lower scale than actually collected because the calculations do not take into account that some visa types attract much higher fees.
According to Ms Barnes, the processing fee “is charged because Kenya charges US citizens to issue a tourist visa. Kenya charges US citizens $50 (Sh3,600) for a single-entry, three-month visitor’s visa. Our fee is for a visitor’s visa, which normally is multiple-entry and 12 months in validity.”
The application fee is a requirement of the US law, she adds.
On if the US could consider lowering the fees and if unsuccessful applicants could get a refund, the official says there is no provision in the US law allowing refunds.
The US Congress, she explains, would have to authorise the embassy to refund application fees in case a visa was denied.
Ms Ondimu stresses that “the charges levied are for processing the papers, and whether or not one gets the visa, work has been done.
“Visa fees are set by the government department responsible for visa issuing services overseas. Fees are charged to assist with the costs of processing an application and are fixed globally… the fee is the same regardless of the nationality of the applicant or the country in which he or she applies.”
All people seeking entry into the UK, she points out, must show that they meet the relevant provisions of the UK immigration rules.
But she says the mission does not keep statistics of how many Kenyans enter the UK annually.
On reports that applicants, including senior government officials, are sometimes harassed, Ms Ondimu explains: “Understanding the demands on Kenya government officials and other VIPs, we currently accommodate them with special processing procedures designed to ensure that their visa applications are processed expeditiously.
“Government officials and other VIPs usually use their contacts within the embassy to help facilitate this process.”
On complaints over the treatment of applicants, Ms Barnes denies that consular officials harass or delay the applications of Kenyans seeking to travel to the US.Relevant Links
“A primary goal of the consular section of the US embassy is to provide fast and courteous service to all visa applicants,” she says. “Our customer service survey indicates that we achieve this goal.”
Reminded about the incident in June in which 77 people were arrested but later released without charges being preferred against them, she says they were seized after being found to have engaged in fraud to have their visa applications processed.
“Without going into details, the type of activity engaged in by these individuals was illegal under both the US and the Kenyan laws,” she says.
The arrested people were initially accused of being members of a ring of fraudulent visa applicants.
The frustrations are not peculiar to Kenyans wishing to travel to the US and Britain. But there are other foreign missions whose visa application charges are moderate and in which reports of harassment or other complaints are minimal.
China, for example, which in recent years has proved a popular destination for Kenyans, charges a relatively modest fee - Sh2,500 for the double-entry visa and Sh3,800 for the multiple one.
An official of the embassy’s public affairs department says that although there has not been cases of rejection of applications from Kenyans, a refund of the fee would be guaranteed.
Government-sponsored students are exempted from the visa application fee, the official says, adding that the exemption is part of the two countries’ development cooperation.
But self-sponsored students are expected to pay a token Sh2,200 if they show proof that they agree on the fees charged by the institutions they are going to.
The charge is even lower in the case of Japan for the various categories of visa. And money is not paid upfront, but until the visa is processed when one is asked to pay it on collection, says an embassy official, Ms Oba Kozue.
A single-entry visa, the official adds, costs only Sh2,050, while a multiple one goes for Sh4,100.
She says that the charges are uniform for all categories of visitors, including students, except people on transit who are required to pay only Sh500.
The South African high commission charges no fee to Kenyans wishing to travel there for whatever reason. The country has of late become a preferred destination for Kenyan businesspeople and those seeking medical treatment and further education.
A good turn deserves another, so the old adage goes, and since Kenyan missions treat those wishing to visit the country with decorum, it may only be expected that other countries will reciprocate, says an official at the Nyayo House offices of the immigration department.
There have been many complaints about the US and Britain in particular mistreating visa applicants or denying them entry for no good reason.
For instance, Livestock and Fisheries minister Joseph Munyao early this year came face to face with the grim reality of the frustrations many Kenyans undergo in pursuit of a visa to the US. The VIP treatment he expected was not there, and he was forced to join a long queue of people waiting to have their fingerprints taken and to be searched.Relevant Links
After 30 minutes on the queue, the minister stormed out in a huff.
A public affairs officer at the embassy, Mr Robert Charles Kerr, says that apart from government officials travelling to the US on official business, visa applicants, including Cabinet ministers, are not exempted from the rigid visa security requirements.
Mr Kerr stresses that for security reasons, all visitors to the US embassies around the world, including American citizens, must pass through the security checks.
