*The United States Embassy reels off new changes to its visa interview requirements for Nigerian travellers, planned to effect from April 22, 2025

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

The United States (US) Embassy has released new changes to its visa interview requirements for Nigerian travellers.

The US Mission in Nigeria, which noted this development in a statement published on official Friday, April 11, 2025, said the new requirements would become effective from April 22 this year.

In regard to the latest development, US visa applicants in Abuja and Lagos must take along a DS-160 visa application form with a confirmation/barcode number that begins with 鈥淎A鈥�, followed by two zeroes.

The US mission also said the code must match the one used to schedule their appointment online.

The Embassy further warned visa applicants that failure to verify the alignment would result in denial of entry into the consular section, or the visa interview.

The statement noted: 鈥淎t least two weeks before your interview, please double-check that the barcode number on your DS-160 form matches the one you used to schedule your appointment.

鈥淵ou cannot reuse a DS-160 from a previous application.”

The US Mission said: “If your DS-160 barcode is incorrect, you must log into your AVITS account at least 10 days before your appointment to create a support ticket requesting correction of your barcode number.鈥�

It equally urged Nigerian visa applicants to ensure that their appointment is made at the location chosen during the DS-160 application process.

The revisions are part of the efforts of the consulate to ensure a smoother 鈥渧isa processing鈥�, it stated.

According to the Mission, effective January 1, 2026, all visa applicants have been mandated to visit the Consulate General, in Lagos, twice as part of the US visa application process in the West African country.

For help, prospective visa applicants are encouraged to contact the visa call centre for assistance via: +234 2013438900 or +1 734 418 2395 (from the U.S.)

nigeria@usvisaappt.com; or through the ChatBot and Click-To-Talk features embedded on the AVITS Web site.