Nigerians denied visa can re-apply as Biden overturns Trump's Muslim ban

The US State Department on Monday, March 8, 2021, said that visa applicants from the 13 mostly Muslim-majority and African countries who applied for various categories of visas can now seek decisions or submit new applications.

This comes after President Joe Biden signed an executive order to overturn Trump's Muslim ban on Jan 2020, 2017, his first day in office. President Biden described the decision as "a stain on our national conscience" in his proclamation.

Ned Price, a State Department spokesman said applicants can who were initially refused visas before Jan. 20, 2020, must submit new applications and pay a new application fee.

Those who were denied on or after Jan. 20, 2020, may seek reconsideration without re-submitting their applications and do not have to pay additional fees, Price said in a Reuters report.

Applicants selected in the diversity visa lottery before the current fiscal year are barred by US law from being issued visas if they have not gotten them already, he said. The diversity lottery aims to accept immigrants from countries that are not normally awarded many visas.

Since December 2017, after a revised version of the original travel ban was upheld by the US Supreme Court, some 40,000 people have been barred from entering the United States under the ban, according to State Department data.

During the Trump administration, some countries were added and others dropped from the list. At the end of Trump's presidency, it comprised Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela and Yemen.