US lifts visa restrictions on Ghana

The United States of America has lifted the visa restrictions it imposed on a section of Ghanaian travellers to the US.

The US Embassy in Ghana in a statement indicated that “visa processing will return to normal procedure” by Friday, January 17, 2019.

“The United States has lifted the visa restrictions applied under Section 243 (d) of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act. The validity period and number of entries on new tourist and business visas (B1, B2 and B1/B2) for all Ghanaian executive and legislative branch employees, their spouses and their children under section 21 will revert to receiving the normal validity, based on reciprocity, which is currently five years with multiple entries,” the statement issued by the Public Affairs section of the Embassy of USA in Ghana said.

The US government in February 2019 imposed visa restrictions on Ghana for refusing to accept the deportation of some 7,000 Ghanaians.

The restrictions included suspension of issuance of all new visas for domestic employees of Ghanaian Diplomats hosted in the US.

The Embassy also limited the normal five-year validity period and a number of entries on Tourist and Business visas for all Ghanaian Executive and Legislative branch employees, their spouses and children under age 21, to single-entry visas valid for only one month.

But the statement issued on Thursday said the lifting of the restrictions follows the establishment of a mutually agreed process for the identification, validating and issuance of travel documents to Ghanaian citizens under the final orders of removal in a manner consistent with international standards issued by the International Civil Aviation Organisation of which Ghana is a member state.