US visa processing centres in Africa to be reduced by more than half; only the latest barrier for African students
- Yet another government policy is squeezing the door shut for African students wanting to study at a US higher education institution
- The number of US visa processing centres across Africa is being cut from 50 to 20
- On top of travel bans; high visa rejection rates; and paused visa processing for OPT, H1-B, and Green Cards, the Trump administration is building a series of barriers to restrict opportunities for both current and prospective African students
The Trump administration’s clampdown on immigration from Africa is intensifying, and the government has introduced new measures to make it more onerous and expensive for students from many African countries to study in the US. These are part of a pattern of new policies and rules apparently intended to discourage African students, workers, and would-be immigrants to the US.
Little by little, the wall gets higher
The movement to restrict African nationals from coming to the US began in the summer of 2025, when the administration stopped processing the visas of students (and other nationals) from several countries including Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia, and Sudan. This list was quickly expanded to include Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
In bluntest terms: Of the 54 countries in Africa, almost half made the travel ban list in the summer of 2025. Currently, African countries account for the lion’s share of all 39 countries on that list.
In January 2026, the government began targeting African students already in the US. Immigration officers were directed to pause visa processing for students from travel-ban countries applying for Optional Practical Training (OPT) and extensions, the H-1B programme, or the work component attached to J-1 visas. That same month, the pause applied to Green Card applicants from 23 African countries, many of which were on the travel ban list.
Now, in June 2026, the US State Department is reducing the number of African visa processing offices from 50 consular posts to 20 designated regional hubs. This means all African students will have to travel to one of those 20 hubs to apply for a US study visa and sit for an interview. Some prospective applicants live hundreds of kilometres away from a hub. Reaching a hub may now necessitate flights and staying over in more than one city.
The impact
Policy after policy is now making it nearly impossible for many African students to study in the US. Through visa bans and high rejection rates; immigration restrictions; and now the reduction of visa processing offices, the barriers are mounting for African students hoping to study in the United States.
African markets have been the fastest growing sources of students for US universities in recent years. For example, between 2023/24 and 2024/25, according to IIE data, these were the biggest growth stories, including top 20 markets of Nigeria (#8) and Ghana (#14):
- Cameroon: +20.5% to 1,180
- Ethiopia: +10.5 to 3,400
- Tanzania: +11% to 1,140
- Uganda: +15% to 1,500
- Zimbabwe: +42% to 2,700
- Ghana: +36.5% to 12,830
- Nigeria: +9% to 21,850
Overall, African enrolments in US higher education institutions grew by +15% in 2024/25 compared with +5% for Asia, +3% for Europe, and +2.5% for Latin America and the Caribbean.
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