The United States Mission in Nigeria has announced the end of routine visa processing at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, with the U.S. Consulate General in Lagos now serving as the country’s sole regional hub for nonimmigrant and immigrant visa services.
The operational change took effect on August 1, 2026, and was reiterated in a public advisory issued on September 8. It forms part of a wider global realignment by the U.S. Department of State, which has discontinued routine visa processing at 25 diplomatic missions across Africa to streamline security screening and reduce operational costs.
The U.S. Mission, however, clarified that the Abuja Embassy remains fully operational for diplomatic activities, emergency services and general American Citizen Services.
Under the new arrangement, applicants with previously scheduled visa appointments in Abuja will still have their appointments honoured, although some interview dates have been changed. Affected applicants have been advised to regularly check their registered email addresses for updated appointment information.
The Mission also said applicants with valid, unused Machine Readable Visa (MRV) fee receipts purchased for visa processing in Abuja can use the same payments to schedule appointments at the Lagos Consulate without paying another fee.
With routine processing now centralised in Lagos, applicants for B1/B2 visitor visas, student visas, business visas and exchange programmes who reside in Northern and Central Nigeria will have to travel to Lagos for interviews and biometric enrolment.
The U.S. Department of State said the regional hub model is intended to strengthen and standardise visa processing by promoting uniform security screening, consistent background checks and harmonised adjudication procedures across sub-Saharan Africa.
