The inquiry followed numerous reports of technical glitches encountered by Nigerian visa applicants, who particularly expressed frustration over the U.S. Embassy’s failure to conduct interviews for those with scheduled appointments, a critical step in the visa application process.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the State Department spokesperson acknowledged the issues but reassured the public that consular operations had returned to normal. Johnson also confirmed that affected applicants would have their interviews rescheduled.
She stated: “The U.S. Department of State experienced a partial systems outage, which has since been resolved. Visa applicants whose interviews were impacted by the outage will be notified and rescheduled.”
This incident comes after the U.S. Mission in Nigeria introduced a new visa appointment system last year. According to the mission, the transition aimed to streamline the visa appointment process at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja and the Consulate in Lagos, making it more user-friendly and transparent for Nigerian applicants.
However, the implementation of the new system had previously caused challenges for Nigerian visa applicants.
At the time, the U.S. government assured that visa processing would improve once the transition period was completed.
Despite these assurances, the recent outage has once again highlighted the difficulties faced by applicants navigating the visa application process.