United States cuts Africa routine visa processing to 20 regional hubs

How the hub system works

The U.S. State Department is cutting routine visa processing posts in Africa from nearly 50 to 20 regional hubs, with Nairobi and Johannesburg anchoring east and southern Africa. The shift takes effect in June, according to an internal department memo reported by the Associated Press.

Both immigrant and nonimmigrant categories move to the hubs, covering visitor, student, work and family-based green card cases. The full hub list spans Abidjan, Accra, Addis Ababa, Cape Town, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Djibouti, Johannesburg, Kampala, Kigali, Kinshasa, Lagos, Lomé, Luanda, Malabo, Monrovia, Nairobi, Port Louis, Praia and Yaoundé. Posts outside this list stop handling most routine visa work.

The change layers onto a separate State Department rule, effective Sept. 6, 2025, that tightened third-country national applications by requiring proof of residency where someone applies.

Who pays the price

Applicants from African countries that lose local visa services now face international flights, hotels and possible transit visas just to attend an interview. Tourists, students, temporary workers and remote workers seeking U.S. visas are all affected, as are family reunification and employment-based immigrant visa applicants.

Long-term residents of Kenya or South Africa benefit from the consolidation because they can apply locally as residents. Travelers hoping to use Nairobi or Johannesburg as convenient third-country options without formal residence face fewer appointments and higher refusal risk under the Sept. 6 rules.

The State Department has directed nationals of countries without routine services to specific hubs. Zimbabweans are routed to Johannesburg. Somalis and South Sudanese are routed to Nairobi.

What applicants should do

Check the visa page of the specific U.S. embassy or consulate where the application was planned, because individual switchover dates aren't public. Confirm whether the post still handles the relevant visa category before booking any appointment.

Applicants requiring travel to a hub should budget for round-trip airfare, lodging and the $185 machine-readable visa fee, plus any transit visa needed to enter the hub country. Build in extra weeks for appointment availability, which regional reporting suggests will tighten as caseloads concentrate.

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