U.S. to house Afghan visa applicants at Fort Lee, Virginia

The U.S. Department of Defense has agreed for Afghan special immigrant visa applicants to be housed initially at Fort Lee, Virginia, a U.S. Army base about 30 miles (48 km) south of Richmond, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.

"The Department of Defense has agreed, at the request of the Department of State, to allow the use of Fort Lee, Virginia as the initial relocation site for ... applicants (who) are closest to completing the special immigrant processing," State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a regular briefing. (Reporting By Simon Lewis and Daphne Psaledakis; Writing by Arshad Mohammed)