June 2, 2026 | SUNTV Global Channel
The United States has announced plans to significantly reduce the number of its diplomatic missions across Africa authorized to process visa applications, in a sweeping policy shift that could affect millions of travellers, students, and business professionals.
According to an internal State Department memo reported by the Associated Press, the number of U.S. embassies and consulates handling visa processing on the continent will be cut from nearly 50 locations to just 20 regional hubs.
The restructuring, approved by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is expected to be implemented within weeks and forms part of a broader foreign policy adjustment under the Donald Trump administration, which is tightening immigration controls and reviewing global diplomatic operations.
Under the new arrangement, visa services will be centralized in selected African cities. While countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and others retain regional processing hubs, many existing embassies will lose full visa application capacity.
The policy means that applicants in affected countries will be required to travel internationally to designated hubs for mandatory interviews, adding extra financial and logistical burdens to the visa application process.
In West Africa, major hubs will include cities such as Lagos, Accra, Abidjan, Dakar, Lomé, Monrovia, and Praia. In East and Central Africa, processing will be concentrated in Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Kampala, Kigali, Kinshasa, Dar es Salaam, Djibouti, and Yaoundé. Southern Africa will be served primarily through Johannesburg and Cape Town, while additional hubs include Luanda, Port Louis, and Malabo.
Under the revised framework, several U.S. embassies in non-designated cities, including Abuja, are expected to discontinue routine visa processing and focus instead on emergency consular assistance and diplomatic services.
The State Department has not yet announced a final implementation timeline, leaving uncertainty for applicants across the continent who rely on U.S. visa services for education, tourism, and business travel.
The move is expected to trigger widespread concern across African nations, particularly among students and professionals planning travel to the United States, as governments and applicants adjust to the new visa processing structure.
