The wait for a U.S. visa interview can be quite frustrating. More so when certain “agents” are able secure an early interview date while genuine applicants who diligently follow instructions from U.S. Consulates, are forced to wait endlessly.In a welcome move, the non-immigrant visa appointment system has been modified. Now the applicant or representative will…

Effective today, Monday, April 4, 2022, applicants can submit their application for visa at any Visa Application Centers (VAC) where a U.S. consular post is located.  For example, if the dropbox appointment is scheduled in New Delhi, the applicant may submit the visa application on the scheduled date and time at any one of the…

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has confirmed that if any U.S. visa applicant refuses one or more doses of an approved COVID-19 vaccine that is medically appropriate for and available to the applicant, then this will be documented as a refusal to be vaccinated. This would result in the visa applicant being considered…

On December 17, 2021, the U.S. Embassy in India announced that the Consular Exchange Rate will change from 76 Indian rupees to 1 U.S. dollar to 78 rupees to 1 U.S. dollar. The current rate will be valid through January 3, 2022. As per the U.S Embassy, this change corresponds to recent shifts in the…

On December 24, 2021, we had reported the U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) decision to expand the scope for visa interview waivers for certain individual petition based nonimmigrant visas. Based on this DOS’s announcement, the U.S. Embassy in India has announced that it will soon release more than 20,000 additional drop box appointments for Spring 2022 in…

Last Updated on: February 9, 2022 On December 23, 2021, the U.S. Secretary of State in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security made an announcement that expands the scope for visa interview waiver for certain individual petition based non-immigrant visas. The key takeaways from this announcement are listed below. Temporary Relaxation of Eligibility within…

On October 25, 2021, the U.S. President Joe Biden released the much-anticipated proclamation titled “A Proclamation on Advancing the Safe Resumption of Global Travel During the COVID-19 Pandemic”, which came into effect on November 8, 2021, and ended the travel restrictions imposed under P.P. 9984, 9992, 10143, and 10199, suspending entry into the United States…

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, November 3, 2021 issued an Emergency Use List (EUL) to  India’s indigenously developed vaccine – COVAXIN (developed by Bharat Biotech). With this approval, COVAXIN is the eighth COVID-19 vaccine validated by WHO for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2. This press release can be found here. Millions…

In January this year, we had reported the U.S. Department of State’s decision to extend the Machine-Readable Visa (MRV) fee until September 22, 2021. The U.S. Department of State extended the validity of Machine-Readable Visa (MRV) fees until September 30, 2022. Recently, the U.S. mission in India has notified that the MRV fee will be extended until September 30,…

With countries opening their borders, it is important to link the passport with COVID-19 vaccination. COWIN is the web portal owned and operated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. This interactive website keeps track of India’s COVID-19 vaccination program. Amongst other things, this website keeps a record of the vaccination…