The United States Department of State has attributed recent challenges Nigerians face applying for US visas to a partial systems outage.

Press Officer, Office of Public and Congressional Affairs, Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Jennifer Johnson, made this known in response to an inquiry made by The PUNCH.

The PUNCH had been inundated with reports of glitches faced by Nigerian visa applicants who particularly lamented that the US Embassy failed to interview those scheduled for appointments, as part of the visa application process.

Responding to the situation, the State Department spokesperson, on Saturday, acknowledged the issues but assured that normalcy had been restored to consular operations.

Johnson further assured that those affected visa applicants will have their interviews rescheduled.

Johnson stated: ?The U.S. Department of State experienced a partial systems outage which has since been restored.

?All consular operations have resumed as normal.

?Visa applicants, whose interviews must be rescheduled due to the outage, will be notified.?

It would be recalled that the US mission in Nigeria had last year launched a transition to a new visa appointment system.

The goal, according to the US Mission in Nigeria, was to make the process of obtaining visa appointments at its embassy in Abuja and its consulate in Lagos easier for applicants and more transparent for the US visa applicants in Nigeria.

During the implementation of the new system, Nigerians applying for visas had also faced challenges, with the US government then assuring of improved visa processing after the transition period. (The PUNCH)

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