By Dr Okpaleke Francis
(Loaded Man)
Many desire to Japa and with this demand there are many that would easily masquerade themselves as offering Japa and visa packages but with ill-intent to hoodwink or deceive you to part away with your hard-earned money.
Here are some tips to help guide your decision framing.
1. Acknowledge your desperation. The more desperate you are, the higher the chances that you would not do your due diligence and expose yourself to Japa scams. Acknowledging your desperation will help you moderate your desires over concrete action. That you heard someone did a visa for someone is not enough to become overly eager without regulating your Japa emotions. Desperation leads to vulnerability and ultimately the likelihood that you will fall into a trap that will cost you both money and your peace of mind.
2. Know the fine print. Before you take the bait, ensure you know what you signing up for. Visit visa is not work visa. Work visa is not easy to give anyone from your home country except it is a case of visa sponsorship of which the immigration process is clear. That someone offers you an abroad route does not mean you are going to abroad. Abroad has levels. No one can offer you US visit visa, you still have to go for the interview yourself and no agent has insider control of visa outcome. So know the fine print of what you are depositing money for.
3. There are no super agents. As the saying goes, visa success today does not translate as visa success tomorrow. Immigration rules change. Rejection policy are regularly updated or capped. There are no super agents that can singularly influence the outcome of your visa application. They can package and offer advice but they cannot guarantee success. Having this understanding is key to measure your expectations. Even licensed agents are not super agents. Your visa approval is always measured against the backdrop of your eligibility, documentation and admissibility which are all moderated by extant Immigration policies and decision process of the VOs.
4. Always ask the what, where, and how questions and do your research. What is the visa type? What documents are being used? What is the job offer? What country is it? How are you applying? What is the length of the visa applied? Some of these questions you can find answers online but you need to ensure you know your bearing before asking someone else to guide your ship.
5. Remember you will have to live your choices. In your eagerness to Japa don’t accept anyhow abroad countries like Libya, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cyprus and the likes. If you do, remember the consequences is one that will be your lived experience not that of the agent. If you remember this, then it would serve as a deterrent to prevent you from falling victim to anything that is packaged as visa.
Above all, trust your gut instincts and listen to counsel. If it feels too good to be true then it is untrue, specially if there is no immigration information that backs it up online.
