America
US visa glitch to continue for a week
Mumbai, June 18
The ongoing technical problems
with the US Department of State's visa systems since June 9 are not
expected to be rectified before next week and will start only after July
6, an official statement said here on Thursday.
Over 100
computer experts from private and public sectors are working on the
problem 24x7 in the United States for the global issue that has hit visa
operations since over a week now.
As a consequence, all
non-immigrant visa interviews in the US Embassy in New Delhi and
consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad between June 22-26
have been cancelled.
Visa applicants with appointments for this
period have been asked to reschedule their appointments online for
biometric enrollment and visa interview to any date after July 6.
After
restoration of visa services, the applicants would be notified via
email or SMS when they can pick up their passports, between 10 a.m.-3
p.m.
Applicants can track the status online at -- http://www.ustraveldocs.com/in/in-loc-passportcollection.asp.
For
those applicants requiring passport back for other urgent upcoming
travels, the case would be placed on 'Administrative Hold' for 12 months
and the passport would be returned without the US visa.
The
technical problems stem from a hardware failure in a US State Department
facility since June 9 preventing processing and transmitting biometric
data checks at visa-issuing embassies and consulates for applications
made from May 26.
"We cannot bypass the legal requirements to
screen visa applicants before we issue visas for travel. Each visa
decision is a national security decision, and we take our obligation to
protect the United States seriously," the statement added.
Emphasising
that the issue is not specific to any particular country, citizenship
document or visa category, the US authorities have expressed regrets for
the hardships caused to those waiting for visas for personal or
professional purposes.