US Lifts Visa Sanctions On Ghana

The United States has lifted the visa restrictions imposed on a section of Ghanaian travellers to its country.

The US Embassy in Ghana in a statement indicated that “visa processing will return to normal procedure” by 17th January 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,” a statement issued by the Public Affairs section of the Embassy of USA in Ghana said.

The US government had 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.

The US government in a statement announcing the restrictions earlier in 2019 warned that the sanction may be extended to the wider population.

“Without an appropriate response from Ghana, the scope of these sanctions may be expanded to a wider population. The sanctions will remain in place until the Secretary of Homeland Security notifies Secretary Pompeo that cooperation on removals has improved to an acceptable level,” the Embassy said at the time.

---citinewsroom