State Department Slashes Africa Visa Processing Posts from ~50 to 20 Hubs Under Rubio Directive

The Trump State Department, under a directive approved by Secretary Marco Rubio, announced it will reduce US consular visa processing operations in Africa from nearly 50 embassies and consulates to just 20 designated regional hubs — a roughly 60% reduction in processing locations. Under the new policy, routine visa processing (both immigrant and non-immigrant) will occur only at 20 designated hubs including Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Accra (Ghana), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Nairobi (Kenya), Lagos (Nigeria), and Johannesburg (South Africa), among others. Consular sections at other US embassies will remain open but will handle only US citizen services (passport renewals, emergency assistance, diplomatic visas) and rare special cases. The measure is part of the Trump administration's broader effort to curb immigration — limiting both legal immigrant visas and non-immigrant visas to reduce overstay rates. Critics and human rights organizations condemned the move as effectively closing Africa off from legal immigration pathways, noting that requiring citizens from dozens of African countries to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to reach a processing hub would make legal visa applications prohibitively difficult. The AP reported the move was not yet effective as of June 3 but was imminent.