PETITION FOR IMMEDIATE REDRESS: RESTORATION OF REGULAR VISA PROCESSING ACROSS GHANAIAN DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS AND END TO PUNITIVE E-VISA CHARGES

To:

• The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Republic of Ghana
• The Comptroller-General, Ghana Immigration Service (GIS)
• The Parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, Parliament of Ghana
• The Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations, New York
• Heads of Ghanaian Diplomatic Missions and Consular Sections Worldwide
  
  
  
  

Executive Summary

We, the undersigned Ghanaian citizens, members of the global Ghanaian diaspora, international travelers, students, business owners, and advocates, submit this formal petition to protest the ongoing shutdown of regular consular visa processing across Ghanaian diplomatic missions worldwide.

Following a total shutdown of standard embassy visa portals on August 17, 2026, the Permanent Mission of Ghana to the United Nations in New York published an official portal advisory explicitly stating:

"The website and its services are expected to be restored on or before 7 September 2026."

As of September 15, 2026, that official deadline has lapsed by more than a full week with no changes, no service restoration, and no clarifying public statement.

Simultaneously, regular visa application services remain fully functional at the Ghana High Commission in London, UK (via visa.immigration.gov.gh/london), while the rest of the world—including missions in New York, Washington D.C., Japan, The Hague, Switzerland, China, Ottawa, Berlin,  Paris, etc —is completely shuttered. By turning off regular embassy applications, travelers with pre-booked flights are forced into the newly deployed national e-Visa system, where processing rates reach as high as $442 USD, compared to standard embassy fees such as the regular $100 USD single-entry visa or  $180 USD multiple-entry visa.

This operational breakdown imposes an unfair financial penalty on travelers, introduces regional inequality, and severely tarnishes Ghana’s reputation as an accessible global hub.

 

Documented Grievances & Evidence of Failure

1.  Breach of the Official September 7 Deadline:

The official website of the Permanent Mission of Ghana to the United Nations (New York) publicly committed to completing website upgrades on or before September 7, 2026. It is now September 15, 2026. Applicants attempting to access the site are still greeted with a maintenance placeholder, leaving thousands without guidance, recourse, or updates.

2. Unfair Regional Discrepancy (The London Inequity):

While missions in North America and across the globe have halted standard consular processing, the online portal for the Ghana High Commission in London, UK (visa.immigration.gov.gh/london) remains active and operational. There is no administrative justification for maintaining normal consular operations for travelers applying from the UK while cutting off travelers in the United States, Canada, the wider diaspora, and the rest of the world.

3 . Exorbitant E-Visa Pricing Imposed on Stranded Travelers:

By cutting off standard consular routes, applicants are forced into the e-Visa portal, which charges inflated processing fees:

• Standard Processing (up to 96 hours): $260 USD
  Priority Processing (within 48 hours): $338 USD
  Express Processing (within 5 hours): $442 USD

A standard embassy multiple-entry visa costs $180 USD. Forcing travelers to pay $260 to $442 USD—simply because the Ministry's standard digital infrastructure has broken down—amounts to penalizing the public for an administrative failure. For diaspora families traveling together, students, and small business operators, this represents an unwarranted financial burden.

4.  Severe Reputational and Economic Harm:

Leaving travelers stranded with no customer service response or paper-based backup channels threatens heritage tourism, undermines the upcoming diaspora travel season, disrupts academic schedules, and damages international investor confidence.

Demands for Immediate Action
We respectfully call on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and the Ghana Immigration Service to immediately implement the following remedies:

1.   Publish an Official Clarification and Binding Timeline: 

Issue an immediate ministerial statement explaining why the September 7 restoration deadline was missed and state the exact date when standard consular portals will resume global operations.

2 .  Establish Geographic Parity Across All Missions:

Immediately deploy the working consular system currently operating in London (visa.immigration.gov.gh/london) across all other missions—starting with New York and Washington D.C.—or reinstate physical, mail-in consular processing for affected regions.

3.   Institute Immediate Price Relief on the E-Visa Portal:

Until regular embassy visa processing is fully restored worldwide, cap standard e-Visa fees at regular embassy rates (e.g., standard visa equivalents) so that stranded applicants are not charged excessive surcharges.

4 .  Emergency Processing for Immediate Departures:

Grant immediate processing authority to consular offices worldwide to manually review and issue visas to applicants with tickets departing within the next 14 to 30 days. (or something close to that effect).

 

Signed,

Diaspora Association / Youth Group Affiliation - USA and across the world.