Abuja and 24 Other African Cities No Longer Accept U.S. Visas (Complete List)

 

Important Lessons

Regular visa services will cease at the US Embassy in Abuja and 24 other African locations on August 1, 2026, according to the US Department of State.

President Donald Trump's visa realignment, according to the State Department, is to increase security screening, reduce government spending, and standardize decision-making across positions.

According to the agency, Nigerian applicants who used Abuja must apply through Lagos or regional centers, and regular visa services would continue in Lagos and other hubs.

As part of a regional reorganization of its visa operations, the United States has declared that regular visa services at its embassy in Abuja and 24 other diplomatic missions throughout Africa will stop on August 1, 2026.

In a statement, the US Department of State revealed that the realignment was intended to improve national security, cut government expenditures, and guarantee more uniform standards for screening, vetting, and adjudication.

The agency claims that the action is a component of President Donald Trump's administration's attempts to match US national interests with international operations.

"To further American priorities as effectively and efficiently as feasible, the Department of State continuously assesses its foreign operations. This comprises a visa procedure that upholds strict security screening and vetting criteria and synchronizes operational capabilities and resources with the interests of the United States of America.

The statement said, "The safety and security of Americans is the Trump administration's top concern, and the State Department will continue to provide Americans with appropriate consular services and assistance at diplomatic locations around the world."

Abuja, 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 are among the diplomatic posts impacted by the change, according to Naija News.

The State Department emphasized that neither the operational status of the embassies and consulates nor the consular services they continue to offer on behalf of the United States will be impacted by the relocation.

It also made it clear that legitimate visas would not be impacted by the policy.

Immediate relative visas, family preference visas, employment-based visas, fiancée and fiancé visas, adoption cases, diversity visas, and follow-to-join asylee and refugee (V92/V93) cases are among the immigrant visa categories impacted by the restructure, according to the department.

It further stated that numerous African nations and regions of Europe have already effectively adopted comparable regional hub structures.

The US embassies and consulates in Lagos, Abidjan, Accra, Addis Ababa, Cape Town, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Djibouti, Johannesburg, Kampala, Kigali, Kinshasa, Lomé, Luanda, Malabo, Monrovia, Nairobi, Port Louis, Praia, and Yaoundé will continue to offer regular visa services, according to the department.

All standard non-immigrant visas, including as business, tourist, and petition-based visas, as well as immigrant visas, will still be processed by these designated centers.

Additionally, the State Department declared that immigrant visa pauses for specific nationalities, visa bond requirements, and visa suspensions imposed under Presidential Proclamation 10998 will continue to be in place.

Beginning on August 1, 2026, it encouraged citizens and residents of the impacted nations applying for US visas to schedule appointments at the specified non-immigrant or immigrant visa processing hubs and pay the necessary costs.

Thousands of Nigerian applicants who presently apply for visas at the US Embassy in Abuja are anticipated to be impacted by the new arrangement, which will force many of them to finish their applications in Lagos or other approved regional locations.

The US Embassy in Abuja and the US Consulate in Lagos are the two main US visa processing facilities in Nigeria, which has one of the highest numbers of US visa applications in Africa.