Applicants from Houston and San Francisco Need to Submit “Additional Particulars Form” BLS International handles all Indian visa, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), Person of Indian Origin (PIO), and Renunciation applications in the U.S.A. A notification on their website indicates that, effective April 1, 2014, all residents of Houston and San Francisco who need to…

The Cathedral Road entrance at the U.S. Consulate, Chennai, is currently being renovated. Therefore, between March 24 and April 8, 2014, visitors to the Consulate’s American Library & Education / USIEF, should use the “Anna Salai” entrance and join the queue meant for general visitors, if they arrive between 12 noon and 5 p.m., IST.…

The nonimmigrant visa section at the U.S. Consulate, Chennai, will be closed to the public on April 24, 2014, according to a recent notification on the official visa information website of the U.S. missions in India. Consequentially, anyone who has a confirmed nonimmigrant visa or biometrics appointment for April 24, 2014, should reschedule. There is…

Regular readers of MurthyIndiaBulletin and MurthyIndiaDotCom are aware that both nonimmigrant and immigrant visa applicants must attend a biometrics appointment at the Visa Application Center (VAC) prior to their visa interviews. Generally, applicants are allowed to join the queue 15-minutes prior to their scheduled biometrics appointment. Applicants who arrive much earlier than their scheduled appointment…

CBP commenced operation of its preclearance facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport, United Arab Emirates, on January 26, 2014. CBP now has 16 preclearance facilities in 6 countries. Ordinarily, passengers undergo immigration, customs, and agriculture inspections upon arrival at a U.S. airport. However, passengers travelling through one of these 16 preclearance facilities including the new…

With H1B filing season around the corner, U.S. consular posts in India advise the public to beware of fraudulent job offers. We, at Murthy Immigration Services Pvt. Ltd., receive numerous calls from persons who have received emails from companies that claim to be H1B sponsors, but in fact are not. The targets of this scam…

We had reported on December 2, 2013 on the requirement for immigrant visa applicants to complete the new online immigrant visa application form DS-260 which replaces the paper based form DS-230 (Part I and II). Effective December 23, 2013, all immigrant visa applicants are required to schedule an appointment for biometrics through www.ustraveldocs.com/in at one…

Non-Immigrant Visa Applicants are Permitted more Number of Cancellations of Visa Interview(s) Subscribers to MurthyIndiaBulletin and regular visitors to MurthyIndiaDotCom are aware that a new visa interview system was introduced in September 2012. Under this system, we understand that one is permitted to cancel the visa interview up to six times. This information was shared…

We had reported on December 2, 2013 on the requirement for immigrant visa applicants to complete the new online immigrant visa application form DS-260 which replaces the paper based form DS-230 (Part I and II). Another recent update indicates that effective December 23, 2013, all immigrant visa applicants need to schedule a biometric appointment through…