Ghanaian US visa applications has tripled since 2019 - US Consular

The United States Embassy in Ghana has disclosed that the number of Ghanaian visa applications has tripled since 2019.

According to the Embassy, while the increased demand for US visas is encouraging, it significantly surpasses the additional resources available to speed visa application processing.

The American Consul General in Ghana, Elliott Fertik has stated that the increased demand for visas has contributed to a backlog of applications.

Elliot Fertik was speaking at a roundtable to reveal the US Embassy's plans to transition all visa applications to a new system beginning August 16.

What is driving the backlog is visa demand and I’ve said before that if you look at the number of people who paid the visa application fee in 2019 before the pandemic and compare it to the amount of people who did so in 2023, the number in 2023 is triple what it was in 2019. So certainly, we hope this new system will provide some additional enhancements and will be more efficient”, he explained.

He also mentioned that a lot more applications are being processed to help clear the backlog.

“What is going to drive down the backlog is our efforts to do more interviews and again we have been processing a lot more applications. This summer we processed 65% more visa applications for students than we did in the corresponding time in 2023”, Mr. Fertik noted.

Beginning August 26, 2024, the Embassy will use a new visa services provider. As a result, access to the present visa service provider's website and services will end on August 16, 2024.

Source : Lead News Online