US to End Routine Visa Services in 25 African Cities Amid Major Consular Overhaul

The United States Department of State will officially cease routine processing of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas at its embassy in Abuja, along with 24 other African diplomatic missions, starting August 1, 2026.This operational consolidation will shift routine visa applications to 20 centralized regional processing hubs to improve national security vetting, optimize government resources, and create uniform vetting standards as established during the Trump administration.Embassies and consulates that will lose their routine visa processing capabilities include: Abuja (Nigeria) Antananarivo (Madagascar) Asmara (Eritrea) Bamako (Mali) Banjul (The Gambia) Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo) Bujumbura (Burundi) Conakry (Guinea) Cotonou (Benin) Durban (South Africa) Freetown (Sierra Leone) Gaborone (Botswana) Harare (Zimbabwe) Juba (South Sudan) Libreville (Gabon) Lilongwe (Malawi) Lusaka (Zambia) Maputo (Mozambique) Maseru (Lesotho) Mbabane (Eswatini) N'Djamena (Chad) Niamey (Niger) Nouakchott (Mauritania) Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) Windhoek (Namibia)However, applicants residing in countries with affected missions will need to travel to one of the 20 designated regional hubs for interviews and visa issuance. Notable processing hubs include: Region Designated Active Processing Hubs West Africa Lagos (Nigeria), Accra (Ghana), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Dakar (Senegal), Lome (Togo), Monrovia (Liberia), Praia (Cape Verde) East & Central Africa Nairobi (Kenya), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Kampala (Uganda), Kigali (Rwanda), Kinshasa (DRC), Yaoundé (Cameroon), Djibouti Southern Africa Johannesburg (South Africa), Cape Town (South Africa), Luanda (Angola) Other Hubs Dar-Es-Salaam (Tanzania), Malabo (Equatorial Guinea), Port Louis (Mauritius).It is important to note that no diplomatic posts are being closed. Affected missions will continue to provide American Citizen Services (ACS) and carry out local diplomatic functions.Additionally, visas that have already been issued will remain fully valid and will not be impacted by this consolidation.Beginning on August 1, 2026, individuals applying from non-hub countries will be required to pay their Machine Readable Visa (MRV) fees and schedule appointments directly via the portal of their assigned regional hub.Responses to the U.S. decision to cease routine visa processing at 25 diplomatic posts throughout Africa, effective August 1, 2026, include criticism regarding the rise in travel expenses , apprehensions about exacerbating existing backlogs, and justifications of the policy as a necessary security measure.Experts in international mobility and various critics contend that this consolidation serves as a covert strategy to impede legal immigration, further intensifying the already lengthy multi-year wait times for interviews.Business and trade organizations emphasize that this transition introduces considerable transactional barriers and additional costs for cross-border talent and corporate mobility.