How to Apply for a visa to visit the USA – B1/B2

This post was most recently updated on October 16th, 2018

Introduction

You live in Africa or Asia and one of your friends in the USA wants you to visit them in say New York. How do you go about that? Do you just buy your ticket and fly to the USA? Not at all. It’s not as easy as that. You need to get a visit visa! The consulate of the USA need to give permission to you to visit the USA. How do you apply for a US visa? This is what this article is about. In it I show you the steps on How to apply for a visa to visit the USA from Nigeria. The steps will be the same for most countries. All you may need to do is find the US immigration website for your country.

Do you need a visa?

Before you spend all your energy studying and reading all this material on how to apply for a visa, you need to be sure that you need a visa. There are some countries that the USA has agreements with and as such their citizens would not require visas to visit. Please take a look at this list to confirm whether you need a visa or not to enter the USA.

How to apply for US visa – The Visa Wizard

The visitor wizard on the US immigration website is a very useful tool to help with the visa application process. The wizard guides you to the website that you need to be on as well as the cost implications and the list of documents you would need. It also leads you to the application form that is appropriate for you as an individual.

All you need to do with the wizard is enter your country of citizenship and the reason for your travel. The wizard would then send you to a page where you can access the specific information for your home country.

Here is a list of steps to follow to obtain a US visitor visa if you are a Nigerian. This is where the visa wizard will lead you to if you choose similar options.

How to apply for a US visa  video

Steps to take – How to apply for a US visa

Here is a summary of the steps to apply for a visa

• Get your passport photograph ready (the specification for photo )
• Fill the online form DS-160 for Non-Immigrant Visa
• Schedule an Interview
• Pay the visa application fee
• Gather the documents required for the interview
• Attend your visa interview
• Pick up your visa – if issued

Visa Office in your country

You will need to visit the US embassy website for your country to get the most accurate and specific information about the visa application fees and required documentation.

All you need to do is follow this link to US embassies in the different countries of the world, select your country of residence or citizenship.

Time to apply

It is important that you give yourself a lot of time to secure an interview, prepared the documents and attend the interview.

I hope you apply and get the visa.