Fitzpatrick made these remarks yesterday during an interview with the Daily Observer  at his office at the US Embassy offices along Kairaba Avenue. He made it clear that submitting counterfeit documents is even illegal here in The Gambia and whoever does that may find him or herself in trouble with the law. "So there are many reasons not to try to bring fake documents to the embassy to seek for USA Visa. Again, this led to a more general problem. All the people that come here and don't tell the truth during the interview, make it more difficult for the honest Gambian to get a visa. It makes us suspicious and the person that is  most affected is the person that is legitimate to travel. So by doing these kind of things, you are putting yourself in a very bad situation and also putting the same problem to the honest Gambians that want to travel," he stressed.

The US consular then advised applicants to be honest during the interview for the visa process saying, "tell the truth, come up, be honest, tell me why you want to go, tell me about your situation here, because by lying and submitting fake documents, you are not only hurting yourself at this present interview but down by the road where you may have in the future qualify but we are going to a have record where you previously lied and submitting fake documents which will make it tougher to ever get a visa".

He cited the various forgery cases he discovers while processing visas on daily basis at the embassy. He said: "There is an increase in the number of bank statements which are forged, people submitting fake job letters and people with sponsors and claim that they are in Europe, fake passports, and photocopy of fake European passports. This has led to a number of problems. At this point, we are checking every bank statement that is submitted to us. We have the signatures of all the people at the various banks who signed these statements. We know what the statements look like. So if you pay somebody for a fake bank statement, you going to lose that money and you going to lose the US$140 you paid to apply."

Fitzpatrick maintained that he do feel bad having to refuse a lot of people visa here in The Gambia saying it is one of the most difficult parts of his job. He then urged people to always follow the appropriate channels in all visa application processes. Read more about the interview in our tomorrow's edition to know who Michael Fitzpatrick is, his career in the diplomatic mission, the motive behind the online visa application, on what basis specifically is one denied a US visa, why applicants with credible and authorised documents are being denied US visas and how he feels rejecting lots of applicants taking into consideration the expenses incurred in the course of the application process, among others.