The United States Department of State has announced a major restructuring of its diplomatic operations across Africa, discontinuing routine non-immigrant and immigrant visa processing at twenty-five diplomatic posts effective August 1, 2026.
The decision shifts standard visa processing to twenty designated regional hubs across the continent as part of a broader effort to centralise infrastructure, lower operational expenditures, and enforce uniform screening, vetting, and adjudication standards.
Under the revised directive, routine processing for tourist, business, student, employment, and family-based visas will cease at diplomatic posts located in the following nations:
Benin (Cotonou), Botswana (Gaborone), Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou), Burundi (Bujumbura), Chad (N’Djamena), Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville), Eritrea (Asmara), Eswatini (Mbabane), Gabon (Libreville), The Gambia (Banjul), Guinea (Conakry), Lesotho (Maseru), Madagascar (Antananarivo), Malawi (Lilongwe), Mali (Bamako), Mauritania (Nouakchott), Mozambique (Maputo), Namibia (Windhoek), Niger (Niamey), Nigeria (Abuja Embassy; processing transfers to the U.S. Consulate in Lagos), Sierra Leone (Freetown), South Africa (Durban Consulate; processing centralizes to Johannesburg and Cape Town), South Sudan (Juba), Zambia (Lusaka), Zimbabwe (Harare).
The State Department emphasised that the policy realignment does not close any embassy or consulate, nor does it invalidate previously issued, valid U.S. visas. Affected diplomatic posts will maintain American Citizen Services, handle emergency travel requests, and conduct standard diplomatic engagements.
Routine visa applicants residing in the impacted nations will now be required to schedule appointments and travel to designated regional hubs, which include U.S. embassies and consulates in Accra, Abidjan, Lagos, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Dakar, Nairobi, Kampala, Addis Ababa, and Kinshasa, among others.
