US Embassy Ends Visa Services in Mozambique; Moves to SA
In a major shift for regional diplomacy and travel, the United States Embassy in Mozambique announced on Monday that it has discontinued all regular visa services in Maputo. Moving forward, Mozambican citizens and residents must travel to Johannesburg, South Africa, to process their visa applications.
A Shift Toward Regional Hubs
The U.S. Department of State is currently realigning its visa operations across the African continent. This reorganization involves concentrating services into specific regional centers to streamline processing and bolster security measures.
“This is part of a long-standing practice that strengthens national security by promoting more uniform standards of analysis, verification, and adjudication,” the embassy stated in a notice released Monday afternoon.
While the embassy in Maputo will remain open, its functions are now restricted to American Citizen Services (ACS) and extremely limited non-immigrant visa categories. The transition officially took effect on August 1, impacting not only Maputo but several other diplomatic missions across Africa.
Travel Required for Visa Interviews
For Mozambicans, the change introduces a significant logistical hurdle. Applicants must now travel approximately 550 kilometers to the U.S. Consulate General in Johannesburg. The embassy clarified that all residents of Mozambique wishing to apply for a U.S. visa must schedule their interviews and pay the required fees directly through the South African consulate.
Standardizing Security Across Africa
According to the U.S. Department of State, the restructuring is designed to consolidate expertise. By moving operations to specialized regional hubs, the Department aims to ensure that visa applications undergo more rigorous and consistent verification processes.
Under the new model, regular visa services in Africa will be concentrated in 21 regional centers. In addition to Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa, these hubs include Luanda (Angola), Praia (Cape Verde), Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), Nairobi (Kenya), and Kigali (Rwanda).
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