The United States has introduced a sweeping policy change for non-immigrant visa applicants, mandating that interviews must now be held at embassies or consulates in applicants’ country of nationality or legal residence.
The new directive, published on the State Department’s official visa portal on September 6, 2025, overrides earlier guidelines on where visa interviews could be scheduled.
According to the announcement, “Nationals of countries where the U.S. government is not conducting routine nonimmigrant visa operations must apply at the designated embassy or consulate, unless their residence is elsewhere.”
This shift is particularly significant for applicants from conflict-hit or diplomatically restricted nations such as Afghanistan (Islamabad), Belarus (Vilnius, Warsaw), Cuba (Georgetown), Iran (Dubai), Russia (Astana, Warsaw), Venezuela (Bogota), and Yemen (Riyadh).
The Department also outlined three major implications:
Residence requirement: “Applicants must be able to demonstrate residence in the country where they are applying, if the place of application is based on their residency.”
Fees: “Applicants who schedule nonimmigrant interviews at a U.S. embassy or consulate outside of their country of nationality or residence might find that it will be more difficult to qualify for the visa. Fees paid for such applications will not be refunded and cannot be transferred.”
Appointment Availability: “Applicants applying outside their country of nationality or residence should expect to wait significantly longer for an appointment.”
Officials clarified that existing appointments “will generally not be cancelled,” while stressing that the rule does not apply to diplomatic, NATO, or UN-related visa categories. Exceptions may still be allowed in cases of “humanitarian or medical emergencies or foreign policy reasons.”
The Department said the decision aims to streamline visa processing, manage global backlogs, and strengthen security checks.
What the visa rules means for Nigerian
For Nigerian applicants, the change marks the end of a long-standing practice of booking interviews in neighbouring countries or farther locations—such as Ghana, Cameroon, Namibia, Canada, or even the Dominican Republic, whenever slots were unavailable in Lagos or Abuja.
