USCIS to Open International Field Office in Addis Ababa

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is set to open an international field office in Addis Ababa. The new office will handle USCIS-related immigration matters directly within Ethiopia, including document verification, fraud investigations, and DNA sample collection for family relationship confirmation. Previously, many of these processes were conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State, but the new facility enables USCIS to manage them directly. Authorities clarified that the establishment of this office does not make obtaining a U.S. visa easier, dispelling rumors circulating on social media. The facility is not a visa-issuing office, and visa processing and decisions will remain under the separate U.S. consular system. Furthermore, all services at the new Addis Ababa USCIS office will be conducted strictly by appointment.