Immigration Update: Delays continue in U.S. Visa issuance

As of August 4, 2014, U.S. Department of State (DOS) has made significant progress and issued most of the worldwide backlog of nonimmigrant (temporary) visa cases. DOS is printing visas for immigrant visas, adoption cases, and emergency nonimmigrant visa cases with very few delays.

DOS has advised that the Consular Consolidated Database is still not fully operational and a small percentage of visa applications are still in process because of system performance issues. The Consular Consolidated Database holds consular records and is used to approve and print visas, passports and other travel documents. As the database issues are not completely resolved, visa applicants might still experience delays of up to one week in addition to normal processing times.

Processing times for nonimmigrant visas will vary depending upon each Consulate’s workload. Many Consulates have provided updates on nonimmigrant visa processing times on their individual websites. A complete list of U.S. Consulates and links to their websites can be found at www.usembassy.gov

DOS continues to provide updates on their webpage and via Facebook.  We strongly recommend if you have questions or concerns about the visa process and impact of the delays, please contact the MVA Immigration team.