By William Madouk
“On behalf of the United States Department of State, the Bureau of Consular Affairs Visa Office hereby informs you that due to a policy restricting visa issuance to holders of South Sudanese passports, which was implemented on April 6, 2025, because the South Sudan transitional government refused to accept repatriation of its citizens, your G2 visa with expiration date 09-08-2025 was revoked in accordance with Section 221(i) of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended,” read an email from U.S. Department of State sent to numerous South Sudanese regarding the termination of their visas.
If everything had gone according to plan, Mr. Peter Garang Ngor would be traveling to the United States of America by June for the International Program in Public Health Leadership.
However, Washington withdrew all visas issued to South Sudanese passport holders, accusing the East African country – of refusing to accept the removal of its nationals from the United States.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that South Sudan had failed to respect the principle that every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the U.S., seeks to remove them.
“We will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation,” Rubio added
Mr. Rubio said, ” It is time for South Sudan’s transitional government to “stop taking advantage of the United States.”
“I was in the process of applying and already integrated with the U.S. embassy. Then, the order indicates that all the appointments have to be canceled. That would make my appointments actually invalid. But I was due to travel in June,” Ngor told King Media.
“I think that is an unfair decision, and we call for a quick action to reverse the decision. Because we cannot at any point carry the burden of our government if they disagree with the government, then such visa restriction sometimes is meant as a sanction so they should be targeted without putting the entire citizenship of the country into that pool,” he explained.
“I hope and I call for the consideration of this. Hopefully, our government will also come in to quickly engage them because, in the 21st century, there should be an opportunity for every citizen,” he continued.
Meanwhile, during a press conference in Juba on April 7, 2025, the Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesperson, Apuk Ayuel Mayen, said the individual at the center of the deportation question presented a South Sudanese travel document and was confirmed after comprehensive verification processes to be a national of the DR Congo.
“We would like to clarify that the government of South Sudan has consistently maintained open communication and cooperation with U.S. authorities regarding immigration and deportation matters. The government welcomes all its citizens, whether they are returning voluntarily or through deportation processes,” amb. Apuk said.
“Records available to both governments clearly indicate that Mr. Makula Kintu is a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo, not South Sudan,” she added.
Amb. Apuk stated that according to information provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Kintu entered the United States on August 21st, 2003 and voluntarily departed for the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009 under file number A098150764.
She said the South Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. issued emergency travel credentials for 21 of the 23 people identified by U.S. authorities, with some returning and accepted without trouble.
“Of the two individuals confirmed as non-South Sudanese nationals, one is a Congolese citizen, namely Mr. Makula Kintu, and the other is a Sudanese national. The government deeply regrets that despite this history of collaboration and partnership, South Sudan now faces a broad revocation of visas based on an isolated incident involving misrepresentation by an individual who is not a South Sudanese national,” she explained.