The U.S. Department of State is undertaking a major restructuring of how visas are processed across Africa. Effective August 1, 2026, routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa services at roughly two dozen embassies and consulates will be consolidated into 20 designated regional visa hubs. The State Department says the realignment is intended to standardize adjudications, strengthen screening and vetting, and improve operational efficiency by concentrating resources at selected locations.
Under the plan, the 20 posts that will remain open for full visa processing are: Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Accra (Ghana), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Cape Town and Johannesburg (South Africa), Dakar (Senegal), Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), Djibouti, Kampala (Uganda), Kigali (Rwanda), Kinshasa (DR Congo), Lagos (Nigeria), Lome (Togo), Luanda (Angola), Malabo (Equatorial Guinea), Monrovia (Liberia), Nairobi (Kenya), Port Louis (Mauritius), Praia (Cape Verde), and Yaounde (Cameroon).
Routine visa services will be realigned away from a long list of other posts — including Abuja, Antananarivo, Asmara, Bamako, Banjul, Brazzaville, Bujumbura, Conakry, Cotonou, Durban, Freetown, Gaborone, Harare, Juba, Libreville, Lilongwe, Lusaka, Maputo, Maseru, Mbabane, N’Djamena, Niamey, Nouakchott, Ouagadougou, and Windhoek. Applicants in those countries seeking appointments on or after August 1, 2026, will generally need to schedule interviews and pay applicable fees through their assigned regional hub, which in many cases means traveling to a neighboring country.
The Department has confirmed that the change does not affect currently valid visas — individuals holding valid visas may continue to use them under existing rules and validity periods. Still, the consolidation is expected to lengthen wait times and add travel burdens for many applicants, particularly first-time immigrant-visa and student-visa applicants who must appear in person. Prospective applicants from affected countries should check their assigned hub, anticipate longer scheduling timelines, and plan travel logistics accordingly.
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Source: Reddit r/immigration