By: Bryan Li

Ferdinand Omanyala, a Kenyan sprinter, nearly misses a race in America because of delays in getting his visa. This creates indignation in places like Africa where it takes very long to get a U.S. visa.

Ferdinand Omanyala was going to compete in the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. According to The Washington Post, he received his visa barely a day before his race when he expected to be able to arrive in Oregon five days prior to the race. The visa arrived a day before the race, and Omanyala flew from Nairobi to Doha to Seattle to Eugene and landed around three hours before his race.

The Washington Post says that some think that Omanyala had failed to provide some information for the visa, but Marcel Viljoen, Omanyala’s manager, says “As far as I know the whole team went to the embassy at the same time. Ferdinand is accustomed to the process and definitely knows the implications of leaving out information. So I doubt it,” in a WhatsApp message.

A Nigerian sports official told the Guardian that some athletes had to withdraw from races last minute because of visa problems, The Washington Post claims. The official also said that “Before the American government accepted to host this World Athletics Championships, I expected their embassies around the world to treat the athletes, coaches and accredited journalists with respect.”

Omanyala’s situation also caused a reaction on social media, The Washington Post says. Ordinary people from Kenya also experience unfair visa delays. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs says that the average wait time for a U.S. visa in Nairobi is 687 days and 665 days for a student visa. These numbers are over 3.5 times the average for a person in London.

According to The Washington Post, students admitted to colleges in America are also affected by the visa delays. Dennis Kiogora, the founder of the Kenya Airlift Program, a program which connects Kenyan students to colleges in the United States, says that perhaps only 20 of the 140 students traveling to America have received visas. One such student, Allan Ngaruiya, claims that his sponsor even stopped funding for his studies because of the visa problems.

Kiogora says that “It is a huge crisis for us because we have so many bright students who have already been admitted to universities in the U.S.”