Over than 100,000 Nigerians applied for visa of the United States in 2011.
And more than half the numbers were granted their requests at both the Lagos and Abuja offices of the US Embassy.
Consular Chief, US Consulate General in Lagos, Carl Cockburn, revealed these at a news conference in Lagos on Tuesday.
Cockburn said the cost of processing visa applications remained $140 only, with no other charge.
Cockburn, who disclosed that the demand for American visas increased by more than 20 per cent in 2011, said: “About 100,000 applications were received in both Lagos and Abuja last year. Of the number, more than half were given visas.
“We wish to reiterate here that the cost of processing visa applications remains $140. However, clients are not supposed to pay for visas.
“All these explanations become necessary because of the mysteries surrounding the visa service that we provide.
“Applicants should not consider visa interview as adversarial. They (applicants) have to be forthcoming in answering questions for the embassy or Consulate General to ascertain their mission.
“Through such one-on-one interaction, we expect the applicants to convince us on why he or she is travelling and other salient reasons. If, in the course of interaction, we are not convinced of their mission, the visa is rejected.”
Cockburn said measures, especially resources, had been put in place to detect fraud.