The US Consulate in Durban will no longer offer routine visa services from August 1. Instead, South African nationals and residents will be required to apply for a visa at the US consulates in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The move forms part of the US Department of State’s plan to consolidate visa operations in Africa into regional hubs. According to the Department, the measure will strengthen US national security by promoting more uniform screening, vetting and adjudication standards.
In an announcement published by the Department of State on July 23, Durban was among several African cities where visa services would end in August.
“The closure will impact not only Durban travellers but all travellers. The Johannesburg and Cape Town offices already deal with applications from other African countries whose offices have closed or are closing. This then impacts the time slots available for the two offices, which means less available appointments,” said Heather Lavery, Owner & Travel Director of The Travelling Agent.
Peter-John de Klerk from Coast to Coast Visa Services, says increasing capacity will be an important factor for sustaining the service level.
“The remaining two centres will need to receive a substantial increase in capacity to accommodate demand previously handled by the Durban office. Without an increase in available slots, applicants are likely to experience even longer waiting times and greater difficulty securing appointments.”
Lavery said the move would also increase costs for clients from Durban who will have to travel to Johannesburg or Cape Town to apply for a visa to a destination that is already unaffordable.
Durban is just one of a host of African cities losing their visa processing capabilities. Others are Antananarivo (Madagascar), Abuja (Nigeria), Asmara (Eritrea), Bamako (Mali), Banjul (Gambia), Brazzaville (Republic of Congo), Bujumbura (Burundi), Conakry (Guinea), Cotonou (Benin), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Gaborone (Botswana), Harare (Zimbabwe), Juba (South Sudan), Libreville (Gabon), Lilongwe (Malawi), Lusaka (Zambia), Maputo (Mozambique), Maseru (Lesotho), Mbabane (Eswatini), N’Djamena (Chad), Niamey (Niger), Nouakchott (Mauritania), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), and Windhoek (Namibia).
Routine visa services will only be provided at the US embassies and consulates in Cape Town and Johannesburg (South Africa), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Accra (Ghana), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Dakar (Senegal), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Djibouti, Kampala (Uganda), Kigali (Rwanda), Kinshasa (DRC), Lagos (Nigeria), Lomé (Togo), Luanda (Angola), Malabo (Equatorial Guinea), Monrovia (Liberia), Nairobi (Kenya), Port Louis (Mauritius), Praia (Cape Verde) and Yaoundé (Cameroon).
