Background Our regular readers and subscribers may be aware of the fact that on July 29, 2023, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) transitioned immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointment scheduling from USTRAVELDOCS to a new portal USVISASCHEDULING. This new system is currently being used at the U.S. Consular Missions in India, Australia, South Korea, and Japan. It is…

U.S. visa applicants using https://www.usvisascheduling.com should note that the website has been unavailable since this morning, Wednesday, March 27, 2024.  While accessing the website, users receive an error message which reads as follows: “Access to https://www.usvisascheduling.com was denied. You don’t have authorization to view this page. – HTTP ERROR 403”.  Hopefully this issue will be…

In a recent development, we have noticed that H & L visa applications are directed to the U.S. Consular posts in Chennai and Hyderabad. Background Until recently, H & L visa applicants requiring an in-person interview were able to schedule an appointment at any one of the consular posts in India. However, in recent times,…

The U.S. Consulate, Mumbai was unexpectedly closed on March 15, 2024, owing to accidental damage to water pipelines. Applicants with scheduled interviews with the consular post had to be sent back and were instructed to reschedule their interviews by logging on their profile on https://www.ustraveldocs.com/in/en/  on or after March 16, 2024. The system may not…

A Notification on the CEAC website indicates that the site will be unavailable between 8 a.m. EDT on Saturday, March 16, 2024 and 10 p.m. EDT on Saturday, March 16, 2024. This notification also indicates that the maintenance may extend beyond the scheduled time. This scheduled maintenance will only affect the immigrant visa applicants. This…

The Visa Appointment Service of the U.S. Department of State (DOS) has provided additional guidance for Indian students on applying for an emergency student visa appointment . Background One of the primary obstacles faced by Indian students is the lack of regular visa appointment slots, especially during off-peak seasons. Typically, the bulk of visa appointments…

U.S. visa applicants using www.usvisascheduling.com should note that the website is down for maintenance for about two hours from 11 a.m. EST on Thursday, March 7, 2024. We are hopeful that this upgrade will help end the ordeal U.S. visa applicants have been facing for the past several months since the new system was introduced. This new…

A recent notification on the Consular Electronic Application Center’s (CEAC) website indicates that technical specialists are currently working on the Department of State’s consular systems. During this time, some applicants may face difficulties reaching the system and should wait 24 hours before trying to reach both https://ceac.state.gov and http://nvc.state.gov. This notification also indicates that there…

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a final rule, marking the first adjustment of certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees since 2016. The new fees under the final rule will go into effect on April 1, 2024. Background The final rule stems from a comprehensive review of fees mandated by law,…

The pilot program, which enables certain H-1B visa holders to secure a travel visa within the United States, eliminating the need to depart the country for visa renewal, is scheduled to operate from January 29 to April 1, 2024. It will accept applications from a maximum of 20,000 H-1B visa holders whose prior H-1B visas…