THE United States Embassy in Nigeria has announced a partial suspension of visa issuance beginning January 1, 2026.
The announcement was made on Monday night in a post on the embassy’s official X (formerly Twitter) account.
Nigeria is among 19 countries affected by a new immigration directive issued by U.S. President Donald Trump.
According to the embassy, the suspension takes effect at 12:01 a.m. EST on January 1, 2026, in line with Presidential Proclamation 10998 entitled, ‘Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States.’ Under the directive, the U.S. Department of State will partially suspend the issuance of visas to nationals of the affected countries.
The countries listed are Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The suspension applies to nonimmigrant B-1/B-2 visitor visas, F, M and J student and exchange visitor visas, as well as all immigrant visas, with limited exceptions.
The exceptions include immigrant visas for ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution in Iran; dual nationals applying with a passport from a country not subject to the suspension; Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for U.S. government employees under 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(27)(D); participants in certain major international sporting events; and lawful permanent residents (LPRs).
On the reason for including Nigeria to the list, the Proclamation, released last Tuesday, said, “Radical Islamic terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State operate freely in certain parts of Nigeria, which creates substantial screening and vetting difficulties. According to the Overstay Report, Nigeria had a B-1/B-2 visa overstay rate of 5.56 percent and an F, M, and J visa overstay rate of 11.90 percent.”
The Proclamation continued the full restrictions and entry limitations of nationals from the original 12 high-risk countries established under Proclamation 10949. These high-risk nations, according to the Proclamation, include: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
The Proclamation added full restrictions and entry limitations on 5 additional countries based on recent analysis. These nations include: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria.
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“It also adds full restrictions and entry limitations on individuals holding Palestinian-Authority-issued travel documents. It imposes full restrictions and entry limitations on 2 countries that were previously subject to partial restrictions: Laos and Sierra Leone,” the White House factsheet shows.
It also continued partial restrictions of nationals from 4 of the 7 original high-risk countries: Burundi, Cuba, Togo, and Venezuela.
“Because Turkmenistan has engaged productively with the United States and demonstrated significant progress since the previous Proclamation, this new Proclamation lifts the ban on its nonimmigrant visas, while maintaining the suspension of entry for Turkmen nationals as immigrants,” the Proclamation factsheet shows.
The factsheet said that restrictions and limitations imposed by the Proclamation were necessary to prevent the entry of foreign nationals about whom the United States lacked sufficient information to assess the risks they posed, garner cooperation from foreign governments, enforce immigration laws, and advance other important foreign policy, national security, and counterterrorism objectives.
The Proclamation stated that it was the president’s duty to take action to ensure that those seeking to enter our country would not harm the American people.
“After consulting with cabinet officials and in light of the original report pursuant to Executive Order 14161, Proclamation 10949, and country-specific information gathered since, President Trump has determined that the entry of nationals from additional countries must be restricted or limited to protect U.S. national security and public safety interests.”
