Progress Made With US Visa System

On August 13, 2014, the State Department announced that it has made significant progress and issued most of the worldwide backlog of nonimmigrant visa cases. DOS is working to bring the Consular Consolidated Database back to full operational capacity, and continues to prioritize immigrant visas, adoption cases, and emergency nonimmigrant visa cases.  DOS is printing visas for these cases and all cases with very few delays. Please check with the embassy or consulate where you will apply for additional information. Please see State Department FAQs for more information.

Previously, we reported that The Department of State (DOS) believes it has made significant progress in issuing most of the worldwide backlog of nonimmigrant visa cases, and is working to bring the Consular Consolidated Database back to full operational capacity. DOS continues to prioritize immigrant visas, adoption cases, and emergency nonimmigrant visa cases, and is printing visas for those cases with very few delays.  DOS is aware of a small number of visa cases still in process because of system performance issues. and is “working diligently” to clear those cases.  Visa applicants are advised they might still experience delays of up to one week in addition to normal processing times. Applicants should take this into consideration when making travel plans. Please check with the embassy or consulate where you will apply for additional information.

We had previously reported an RT News report that American visas have become literally unobtainable in all consulates worldwide for nearly two weeks as IT specialists have struggled to fix the country’s malfunctioning consular database.