The United States Department of State has attributed recent difficulties encountered by Nigerian visa applicants to a partial system outage, assuring that affected individuals will have their interviews rescheduled.
Jennifer Johnson, Press Officer at the Office of Public and Congressional Affairs, Bureau of Consular Affairs, disclosed this while addressing concerns raised by applicants who missed their scheduled visa interviews.
Johnson confirmed that while technical issues had disrupted operations, full functionality had now been restored.
“The U.S. Department of State experienced a partial systems outage, which has since been resolved. All consular operations have resumed as normal. Visa applicants whose interviews were affected will be notified about rescheduling,” she stated.
Last year, the U.S. Mission in Nigeria introduced a new visa appointment system to streamline the scheduling process and enhance transparency at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja and the Consulate in Lagos. However, the transition presented challenges for applicants, prompting reassurances from the U.S. government about improvements once the system was fully operational.
While the recent outage caused further disruptions, consular services have resumed, and affected applicants can expect updates on their rescheduled appointments as efforts continue to clear the backlog.