US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on 3 September 2026 that it is opening a new international field office in Addis Ababa. The office begins operations on 9 September and will handle USCIS immigration matters in Ethiopia. Its stated job is narrow: staff there will verify the authenticity of foreign documents, investigate suspected fraud, and collect DNA to confirm family relationships. Until now those functions have been carried out through coordination with the Department of State. Services will be available only by appointment. For Ethiopian families with a pending US petition, this changes who looks at their paperwork and where the DNA test happens.
Background
USCIS spent the past several years shrinking its overseas footprint. In March 2019 the agency announced it would close its international field offices and hand the work to the Department of State and to domestic USCIS offices. It reversed course that August and kept seven, having closed sixteen field offices and three district offices in the meantime, a sequence tracked by the American Immigration Lawyers Association. As of this week the agency's own International Immigration Offices page, last updated 19 May 2026, lists 11: Dhaka, Beijing, Guangzhou, Quito, San Salvador, Guatemala City, Tegucigalpa, New Delhi, Nairobi, Mexico City and Ankara. Nairobi has been the only one in Africa. Addis Ababa will be the second, and it moves in the opposite direction to the last decade of policy. USCIS frames it as "part of a broader effort to better align USCIS' overseas operations with agency priorities and strengthen the agency's overseas operational capacity".
What exactly the office will do
Three functions are named in the announcement, and the alert's own title frames them as fraud prevention. The first is verifying the authenticity of foreign documents: birth certificates, marriage certificates and similar civil records submitted in support of a petition. The second is investigating suspected fraud. The third is collecting DNA to confirm family relationships, which is the mechanism used where documentary evidence of a parent-child or sibling relationship is thin or contested. USCIS says the new office "will provide USCIS with a dedicated presence to perform these critical workloads directly", rather than relying on consular staff to do it on the agency's behalf. Appointments are required. USCIS says it will update its International Immigration Offices webpage with information about the office, its services and how to book.
What is confirmed and what is not
- Confirmed: the office is in Addis Ababa and begins operations on 9 September 2026
- Confirmed: it will handle USCIS immigration matters in Ethiopia
- Confirmed: document authentication, fraud investigation and DNA collection to confirm family relationships
- Confirmed: services by appointment only
- Not stated: the address, phone number or how appointments are booked
- Not stated: whether the office accepts form filings or conducts interviews
- Not stated: whether the Nairobi office's remit changes as a result
Who it affects
Most directly, people in Ethiopia with a family-based petition in progress and the US-based relatives who filed for them. Consider a US citizen petitioning for a sibling where the civil records from decades ago are incomplete: that is exactly the case where DNA evidence gets requested, and from 9 September the collection sits with a USCIS office in Addis Ababa rather than being arranged through the embassy. The same applies to refugee and asylee relative petitions, where relationship evidence is often the hardest part of the file. It also affects anyone whose documents get flagged. A dedicated fraud-prevention presence in-country generally means more scrutiny of civil records, not less, so expect document checks to be done locally and more thoroughly. Ethiopians already in the United States are not directly affected by this announcement.
What to do now
If you have a petition pending with a beneficiary in Ethiopia, wait for the detail. USCIS has said it will publish the office's services and appointment information on its International Immigration Offices page, and until that goes up there is no way to book anything. The office does not replace the embassy for consular processing: immigrant visa interviews and visa issuance remain a State Department function, and nothing in this announcement changes that. What you can do in the meantime is get civil documents in order, meaning original birth and marriage certificates and a clear account of any gaps or discrepancies, since document authenticity is one of the three things this office exists to test. Our Ethiopia country guide (/country-guides/ethiopia) covers the local documentation landscape.
When it takes effect
USCIS announced the office on 3 September 2026. It begins operations on 9 September 2026, by appointment only.
Before you plan around it
The announcement is a short agency notice and no independent reporting exists yet. USCIS has not published the office's address, contact details or appointment process, has not said which functions if any move away from the Nairobi office, and has not said whether the Addis Ababa office will accept filings or conduct interviews. Check the USCIS International Immigration Offices page before making any plans that depend on the office being open to you.
Key Takeaway
USCIS is putting staff back on the ground in Addis Ababa from 9 September 2026 to check documents, investigate fraud and collect DNA. If you have an Ethiopian family petition in progress, expect the evidence in your file to be examined locally and in more detail.