The ease of renewing the United States visa application processes otherwise known as the drop box has been abolished.

Some applicants, who spoke to Sunday Telegraph said they were shocked when the process for drop box provision online was no longer available.

What that means is that all US visa applicants to the US would now go through the same tedious process of getting appointment for visa renewal both for first timers and regular visitors to America.

While the US Embassy in Nigeria has yet to issue an official statement on the change, applicants attempting to schedule visa renewals have reported that the drop box feature is no longer an option on the appointment booking platform.

Applicants, who spoke, stated that they have not been able to access the platform suggesting that it may have been removed.

However, sources confirmed the feature may have been removed as a slew of executive orders from President Donald Trump started to impact the world.

This development is coming amid a backlog of visa applications, with many applicants waiting for months to secure drop box appointments before this removal.

Some even reported waiting nearly a year to get a physical appointment, adding to the frustration of an already tedious process.

This change comes at a time when many applicants had already been struggling with long wait times – some as long as a year – to secure an in-person visa appointment.

As of January, drop box appointment slots were unavailable in Lagos, pushing many applicants to seek alternatives in Abuja.

Now, with the complete removal of the drop box feature, all applicants will have to go through in-person interviews, returning to the process that was in place before 2020.

The drop box (Interview Waiver) program in Nigeria was initially introduced to ease the visa renewal process by allowing certain applicants to submit their documents without attending an in-person interview at the US Embassy or Consulate.

To qualify, applicants had to meet specific criteria, including: “Having a prior US visa that expired within the last 24 months. The previous visa must have been issued in Nigeria as a full-validity, multiple-entry visa. Applying for the same visa classification as the prior approved visa.”