The United States State Department plans to drastically reduce the number of African embassies and consulates authorized to process visas.
An internal memo reveals that processing locations will drop from nearly fifty down to just twenty hubs in the coming weeks.
Approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, this policy is expected to take effect sometime during the month of June.
The diplomatic shift aligns with the Trump administration’s broader geopolitical strategy to tighten immigration controls and limit temporary visa overstays.
Citizens living in non-hub nations must now endure significant travel expenses to reach one of the remaining authorized visa sites.
Impacted embassies will remain open but will pivot exclusively toward assisting American citizens, passport renewals, and urgent diplomatic requests.
Prior restrictions, including mandatory applicant bonds of up to 15,000 dollars, have already severely hampered African visa processing metrics.
The remaining twenty global hubs include major diplomatic installations in Accra, Addis Ababa, Cape Town, Nairobi, Dakar, and Lagos.
Diplomats were officially notified of the impending structural scale-back during a mandatory conference call conducted by senior officials last Friday.
This sweeping consolidation represents a fundamental tightening of American foreign policy and border management across the entire African continent.
