Visa applicants make their way to the Dutch Embassy in Nairobi/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 3 – The Embassy of the Netherlands will from March 1 move its visa processing section in Nairobi to Pretoria, South Africa.
A statement by the embassy says processing of visa applications will now take at least 10 working days.
“As of 1 March 2015 all visa applications submitted at the Netherlands Embassy in Nairobi will be sent to the Regional Service Organization (RSO) in Pretoria for further processing. From then on processing of a visa application will take at least 10 working days (2 weeks). Please take this term into consideration when planning visits to The Netherlands,” it reads.
The embassy says it will require all application supporting documents, including invitations from the Netherlands, to be originals. Furthermore, only complete visa applications can be accepted.”
They however say that the embassy will introduce an online appointment system for visa applicants in the short term.
The system will be open for booking of appointments as of March 15 while after April 1, visa applications will only be submitted by appointment.
Applicants, the statement says, are required to book an appointment on a date at least four weeks before the travel date.
Last year, the UK High Commission in Nairobi also moved its visa processing section to Pretoria.
READ: UK to move Kenya visa processing to Pretoria
However, the Nairobi section of the UK High Commission remained open but “will only deal with Kenyan official and diplomatic applications, priority visas, compassionate and urgent medical cases.”
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