Non-immigrant Visas
The following provides information on visa requirements for travelers to the United States who wish to visit, work or study for a temporary period. The type of visa required will depend on the purpose of your travel.
Method of Application
Nonimmigrant visa applicants are required to schedule an appointment for an interview with a U.S. consular officer. Interviews are by appointment only. Please visit the Banjul, Senegambia or Kairaba Avenue branches of Standard Chartered Bank to schedule an interview. The Embassy does not accept walk-in applications.
Processing Times
Routine visa applications take approximately 1 workday to process after the visa interview.
Applicants who are advised at the time of their interview that action on their application has been suspended under Section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act are required to allow 10 - 15 days for their application to be processed once they submit the missing documents to the Embassy.
Applicants who are advised that their application requires further review will be contacted once the review is complete. Please note that some administrative processing may take more than two months to complete.
Consular Visa Forms
The DS-157 and DS-158 are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them.
| Form Name | Description | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Nonimmigrant Visa Application Form | NIV | |
| Supplemental Nonimmigrant Visa Application Form | NIV | |
| Contact Information and Work History For Nonimmigrant Visa Applicant | NIV | |
| Supplemental Family Form | NIV |
Filling out the Electronic DS-156 Visa Application Form
- The visa application form DS-156 must be filled out on-line. Complete this form ahead of time. If you experience problems in accessing this form and are unable to complete it by the date of the interview, your appointment will be cancelled and you will be required to reschedule for another day.
- Failure to complete the 2D bar coded form will delay your application for a visa.
- Do not complete blank or unprocessed data input forms by hand. Unprocessed data input pages or data input pages completed by hand will not be accepted.
- The information that you submit is not stored anywhere. It is also not submitted to the Embassy electronically. It is only used to generate a barcode.
What you Need
To use the electronic visa application form, your Internet browser must support 128-bit encryption and you should use either an ink-jet or laser printer to print the completed application form. If you are using Internet Explorer (Windows), the minimum version that will work with this site is version 5.0, with service pack 2. If you are using Netscape, the minimum version that will work with this site is version 6.2. You must also have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC in order to download and print the completed application form. The minimum version that will work with this site is version 5. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, you may download a copy from Adobe’s web site.
Depending on the speed of your Internet connection, it may take several minutes to download the initial and completed copies of the form. Please be patient.
Instructions for completing the electronic DS-156
- Complete the form on-line by filling in the applicable data fields. Fill in the form as completely as possible leaving blank only those fields that do not apply in your case. If a field is completed incorrectly, a message will advise you on who to correct the entry.
- Review the information you have entered for accuracy.
- Press the Continue button at the end of the form and wait while the system processes your data and transfers it to a 3 page DS-156 form with a special bar code on page 3. Failure to click on the Continue button will result in an incorrectly formatted application form.
- Print the form after it is returned to you and date and sign it.
- The barcode that prints on the 3rd page contains the information you entered and will help us process your application more quickly.
- Pages 1, 2 and 3 with the 2-D bar must be furnished when applying for the visa.
Do not complete blank or unprocessed data input forms by hand. Unprocessed data input pages or data input pages completed by hand will not be accepted.
