By Ayo Kehinde
The United States government has lifted the visa restrictions previously placed on Ghana.
Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who confirmed the development in a post on X, said the policy reversal came after months of sustained diplomatic engagement and negotiations.
Noting that Ghanaian citizens are now eligible to apply for five-year multiple-entry U.S. visas, Ablakwa said the new arrangement also includes “enhanced consular privileges” for Ghanaian travellers.
“The US visa restrictions imposed on Ghana have been reversed. Ghanaians can now be eligible for five-year multiple-entry visas and other enhanced consular privileges.
“This good news was directly communicated to me by US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Allison Hooker, at a bilateral meeting earlier today, in the margins of the UN General Assembly. I am really pleased that months of high-level diplomatic negotiations have led to a successful outcome.
“It will be recalled that the US imposed visa restrictions on Ghana and other countries in July this year. The affected countries were slapped with a maximum three-month single-entry visa and other limitations. In the specific case of Ghana, the Trump Administration said they were reacting to many years of visa overstays, mainly by students.
“It’s good to see healthier and stronger Ghana-US relations.”
The lifting of the restrictions follows Ghana’s recent cooperation in accepting U.S. deportees from Nigeria and other West African nations, an issue that had strained diplomatic relations and prompted Washington to impose the travel measures.
The deportation of undocumented immigrants to third countries, including places deportees have never lived, has been a key tactic of US President Donald Trump. His administration has tried to strike a deal with multiple African countries about taking in deportees as part of its campaign to curb immigration through high-profile raids and deportations.
In the last couple of months, several undocumented immigrants were accepted by Rwanda, Eswatini and South Sudan.
Notably, the deportation agreement between the US and Ghana has come amid hiked tariffs on Ghanaian goods and visa restrictions for Ghanaian nationals.
A diplomatic deal in which Ghana agreed to accept West Africans deported from the United States, joining Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan as African countries to receive deported migrants
In early September, Ghanaian President, John Mahama, said he agreed to take in nationals from West Africa, where a regional agreement allows visa-free travel.
“We were approached by the US to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the US. And we agreed with them that West African nationals were acceptable. We agreed that West African nationals were acceptable because all our fellow West African nationals don’t need a visa to come to our country,” Mahama said as Ghana received the “first batch” of 14 deportees, which included several Nigerians and one Gambian.
