Visa Processing System Experiencing Problems – Global US Visa and Passport Processing Delays Possible

We are getting updates from the U.S. Department of State and from other sources that the global visa processing system used by the Department of State to process U.S. visa applications and passports is experiencing technical problems — as a result, U.S. Consulates around the world are unable, at least temporarily, to complete visa application processing.

Database Glitch Causing Increasing U.S. Visa Processing Backlogs

The database which seems to be causing problems is the State Department’s system of record and is used to approve, record and print visas and other documents to ensure that national security checks are conducted on applicants.

The problems have reportedly started on Saturday and the inability to properly process visas has already created a huge backlog of visa applications waiting to be processed.   We are hearing that there may be as many as 50,000 visa applications being on hold in one country only (and growing), as a result.

Are You Experiencing Delays?  Share Your Experience With Us

Are you experiencing delays with your U.S. visa or passport processing as a result of this?   Are you getting any information from the U.S. Consulate?   Please contact us and share your experience.  You can also tweet us at @cilawgroup.   We are trying to combine information from various parts of the world so that we can share with our contacts in Washington, DC and also to report to our readers.

Conclusion

At this time, it is unclear how long this outage would last.  Hopefully, it is something which can be fixed over the next day or two so that normal operations would continue.   However, we caution that residual delays in U.S. visa processing may still linger for days or weeks, especially considering the growing backlog of U.S. visa cases around the world for each hour the system remains down.   If you are planning to apply for a U.S. visa or a U.S. passport, please ensure you plan early in advance and take into consideration that there may be delays in the process.

We will be providing updates on this outage as we have more information.   Please feel free to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to obtain developments on this and related topics.  If our office can be of any help, please feel free to contact us.