THE United State embassy on Tuesday announced the indefinite suspension of dropbox process of visa renewals in all its consulates in Nigeria.

In a statement made available on its website, the embassy said visa applications would no longer be accepted by DHL in Nigeria. Although the suspension does not affect those who have already submitted their passports via “Dropbox” prior to the suspension

“All applicants in Nigeria seeking a non-immigrant visa to the United States must apply online and will be required to appear in person at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja or U.S. Consulate General in Lagos to submit their application for review.

“Applicants must appear at the location they specified when applying for the visa renewal.

“Processing of diplomatic and official (A, G, and NATO class) visa applications will continue unchanged.

“Mission Nigeria’s processing procedures are regularly reviewed in order to assess our ability to quickly, efficiently, and securely process visa applications.

“The U.S. Mission is taking this step to provide more efficient customer service and promote legitimate travel, and will continue to facilitate applications of established travellers to the best of its ability,” the statement read.

Prior to this new development, it was possible for Nigerians to renew their existing or expired visa online via the visa drop box service which entails the accurate posting your documents to the US visa service centre in the country, and acquiring the visa and passport without applicants necessarily being present.