U.S. Consolidates African Visa Services into 20 Regional Hubs

Starting August 1 2026, the United States Department of State will re‑organize routine visa processing across Africa, cutting services at roughly 50 diplomatic posts and concentrating them at 20 designated regional hubs. The change will eliminate routine immigrant and non‑immigrant visa work at 25 posts, including Libreville (Gabon), and redirect applicants to nearby hubs such as Yaoundé, Cameroon.

For Gabonese citizens, all non‑immigrant and immigrant visa applications must be filed at the U.S. Embassy in Yaoundé, which will also serve applicants from Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, São Tomé and Príncipe, and, for immigrant visas, Equatorial Guinea. The realignment is intended to standardize security screening, improve efficiency, and align consular resources with U.S. foreign‑policy priorities, though it will raise travel costs for many applicants.