By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The State Department is considering a drastic reduction in the number of U.S. embassies and consulates in Africa empowered to process visas for foreigners seeking to come to the United States.
The almost 50 U.S. embassies and consulates that are processing visa applications will be reduced to 20 in the coming weeks, according to three U.S. officials and an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press.
Among the 20 hubs to remain in operation include, Lagos, Nigeria, Accra, Ghana; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Cape Town and others.
No date has been officially announced as the implementation date. However, it is expected to take effect in June, officials who were not authorized to comment to the media spoke on condition of anonymity.
The move is part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s effort to crack down on issuing both immigrant and non-immigrant visas, pursuing its broader plan to limit immigration to the U.S. and clamp down on those who travel on temporary visas but then overstay.
The administration has also reduced the number of personnel at embassies and consulates around the world.
On a conference call last Friday, U.S. diplomats, including consular chiefs, were told the U.S. would be scaling back its visa services across Africa, one of the officials who was on the call told AP.
Under a directive approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week, the State Department will reduce consular operations in all but 20 “hubs” in Africa, according to the officials and the memo.
Visa processing in Africa has already been affected by a travel ban on certain countries as well as a requirement for applicants to post up to $15,000 bond in order to apply and more recently by restrictions caused by the Ebola outbreak.
The new rules imply that a citizen of a non-hub country will have to travel to any of the 20 approved sites to process application, which could pose formidable travel challenges and costs.
Consular sections in non-hub countries will stay open but be limited in the services they can offer.
According to sources privy to the issue, they will still be able to assist American citizens with passport renewals and emergency consular requests as well as special national interest cases and diplomatic visa applications.
Other hubs to remain open for all processing are: Abidjan, Ivory Coast; , South Africa; Dakar, Senegal; Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania; Djibouti, Djibouti; Johannesburg, South Africa; Kampala, Uganda; Kigali, Rwanda; Kinshasa, Congo; Lome, Togo; Luanda, Angola; Malabo, Equatorial Guinea; Monrovia, Liberia; Nairobi, Kenya; Port Louis, Mauritius; Praia, Cape Verde; and Yaounde, Cameroon.
