{"id":119089,"date":"2026-02-07T16:38:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T16:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi"},"modified":"2026-02-07T17:53:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T17:53:38","slug":"refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi","title":{"rendered":"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. <\/strong> <\/span><b>The United States Embassy in Kampala has clarified that certain visa categories are either processed outside Uganda or currently paused, underscoring the global scope of recent U.S. immigration measures.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a media briefing, Consular Section Chief Tania J. Romanoff said immigrant visa interviews are not conducted at the U.S. Embassy in Kampala. Instead, those applications are handled at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t actually interview immigrant visas here in Kampala. Those are handled in Nairobi,\u201d Romanoff said, noting that immigrant visa interviews are continuing there.<\/p>\n<p>She also confirmed that refugee visa processing is currently on hold worldwide, except for limited categories of nationalities. The suspension is not specific to Uganda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRegarding refugees, there is a hold right now on refugee visa applications, so they are not interviewing refugees at the moment,\u201d she explained, adding that the pause applies globally rather than targeting any single country.<\/p>\n<p>The clarification comes amid questions about the broader direction of U.S. visa policy and whether recent directives have affected application volumes from Uganda. While specific issuance figures for 2025 were not immediately available, embassy officials indicated they would review and share data where possible.<\/p>\n<p>Romanoff emphasized that visa compliance remains central to U.S. policy, particularly where concerns arise about individuals overstaying or changing their declared purpose of travel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen individuals enter the country for one purpose but then do something else or do not depart when they say they\u2019re going to depart, that\u2019s obviously a security concern,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Under U.S. procedure, travelers are informed at the port of entry by Customs and Border Protection officers how long they are authorized to stay. Tourists and business travelers may receive stays of one to six months, while students are admitted for the duration of their academic status.<\/p>\n<p>Officials say these distinctions are designed to balance access with enforcement, ensuring that legitimate travelers can continue to move while compliance mechanisms remain intact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Uganda<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. The United States Embassy in Kampala has clarified that certain visa categories are either processed outside Uganda or currently paused, underscoring the global scope of recent U.S. immigration measures. Speaking at a media briefing, Consular Section Chief Tania J. Romanoff said immigrant visa interviews are not conducted at the U.S. Embassy in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":119088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,258],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-119089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-to-homepage","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Uganda. The United States Embassy in ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Uganda. The United States Embassy in ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-07T16:38:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-07T17:53:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/02\/sm_1770486543.910336.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1428\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"952\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-07T16:38:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-07T17:53:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi\"},\"wordCount\":349,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/02\/sm_1770486543.910336.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi\",\"name\":\"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi - Uganda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/02\/sm_1770486543.910336.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-07T16:38:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-07T17:53:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"-article-header-tag\\\"> Africa-Press - Uganda. The United States Embassy in ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/02\/sm_1770486543.910336.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/02\/sm_1770486543.910336.jpg\",\"width\":1428,\"height\":952,\"caption\":\"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\",\"name\":\"Uganda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi - Uganda","description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Uganda. The United States Embassy in ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi","og_description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Uganda. The United States Embassy in ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi","og_site_name":"Uganda","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2026-02-07T16:38:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-07T17:53:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1428,"height":952,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/02\/sm_1770486543.910336.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi","datePublished":"2026-02-07T16:38:42+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-07T17:53:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi"},"wordCount":349,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/02\/sm_1770486543.910336.jpg","keywords":["uganda"],"articleSection":["all news","community","to-homepage"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi","name":"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi - Uganda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/02\/sm_1770486543.910336.jpg","datePublished":"2026-02-07T16:38:42+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-07T17:53:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Uganda. The United States Embassy in ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/02\/sm_1770486543.910336.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/02\/sm_1770486543.910336.jpg","width":1428,"height":952,"caption":"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/refugee-processing-halted-immigrant-visas-in-nairobi#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Refugee Processing Halted, Immigrant Visas in Nairobi"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/","name":"Uganda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}