USCIS launched Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Immigration Records SysTem (FIRST) on May 30, 2018, allowing users to submit, manage, and receive FOIA requests entirely online. This update can be found here. Earlier, USCIS accepted FOIA requests only by mail, fax, and email. Once requested information was pulled up, requesters/users received their documents on a…

Persons applying for an Indian visa from the United States may be aware that Cox & Kings Global Services (CKGS) is the only authorized Service Provider for the Embassy of India and its Consulates across the United States. Recently, CKGS’s Indian Passport Application Center has changed their contact number to 888-585-5431. This update can be…

Each year, consular posts in India celebrate “Student Visa Day.” This year, consular posts in India will celebrate Wednesday, June 06, 2018 as “Student Visa Day”. On this day, the consular posts will exclusively interview only student visa applicants. Student applicants being interviewed on this day will be treated to a festive atmosphere. Consular staff…

Visa officers in India take questions live online every Friday at 2 p.m. It is important to note that the officers will not entertain case-specific questions. This will be regarding current processes, timelines, general visa policies, etc. Applicants who wish to contact the officers may do so by following this link.

Effective April 1, 2018, the U.S. Consular post in Mumbai handles all immediate relative immigrant visa applications in India. Effectively, the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi no longer processes the following: IR5 – parent of a U.S. citizen; IR1/CR1 – spouse of a U.S. citizen; and IR2/CR2 – unmarried minor child of a U.S. citizen.…

The wait time for a nonimmigrant visa interview at the U.S. embassy / consulates in India was negligible until a few weeks ago. Applicants were able to obtain an interview date within a week or two for most categories of visas at almost any post in India. However, we have recently noticed that there is…

All U.S. nonimmigrant visa applicants must pay the MRV fee receipts, also known as visa fees, to be able to schedule a visa interview. Applicants have the option to pay the fees by cash at Axis/Citi Bank or National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT). Previously, the cash payment at Axis/Citi Bank was the fastest way to…

This article is for someone who had created a profile for a U.S. visa application in India using www.ustraveldocs.com/in (irrespective of the fact the person applied for a visa or not) and later moved to another country, and needs to apply for a U.S. visa from that country. Applying from a country that is serviced…

All nonimmigrant visa applicants should create a profile on www.ustraveldocs.com/in to schedule the visa interview. There may be situations where a profile is outdated, and the applicant can no longer use the eMail ID that was originally used to create the profile, or the applicant could have previously been a co-applicant or a dependent applicant…

We provided an update on the conversion of PIO (Person of Indian Origin) cards to OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) cards without consular fees in our July 2017 bulletin. A recent update on the website of Cox & Kings Global Services, the official partner of Embassy of India in the United States, indicates the revision…