The VFS U.S. Visa Application Center in Cochin will remain closed on April 15, 2011 on account of Vishu Festival. Vishnu is a Festival of Harvest and Malayalam New Year. Please note that the U.S. Visa Application Centers in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad will remain open. The U.S. Visa Application Center can be contacted on…

Regular readers of MurthyIndiaBulletin are aware of the requirement of the “U Visa” sticker for person who hold the status as Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), to travel to India. Carrying the OCI booklet does not allow entry into India. If a person holding status as OCI loses the passport which has the “U Visa”…

Partial Reduction in Operations A recent update on the U.S. Consulate, Mumbai’s website indicates that they are coming up with a new facility which is expected to open later in 2011. The update further clarifies that since there is reduction in the number of operational windows which is directly incidental to the ageing of the…

Nonimmigrant visa applicants aged over 80 years may be exempted from a personal appearance for their non-immigrant visa interview under certain circumstances. The applicant may contact the respective consulate via eMail and request for a waiver of personal appearance. Applicants who are 80-years-old or older, and have not been previously found ineligible for a U.S.…

We recently reported that the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and more recently the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai provided comprehensive support through VFS. With effect from today, February 15, 2011, the Consular Section in Hyderabad has shifted to the VFS service for response to inquiries. Effective today, the U.S. Consulate will not respond to eMails…

Effective January 3, 2011, the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai has joined the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi in providing comprehensive and multi-lingual helpline for U.S. non-immigrant visa applicants through the VFS services. The VFS call centers handle inquires from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on all working days.…

We wish to remind U.S. visa applicants who hold Indian passports valid for 20 years to replace the passport with a 10 year passport prior to applying for a U.S. visa. Though the U.S. Government recognizes the 20 year passports issued by India, in March 2004, the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC advised Indians with…

Subscribers of MurthyIndiaBulletin and readers of MurthyIndia.com are aware of the application process for Consular Report of Birth abroad (CRBA) at the U.S. Consulates and Embassy in India posted on Oct 6, 2009. We would like to inform our readers and prospective applicants for CRBA that, the Consulates and Embassy in India have suspended action…

With effect from Wednesday, December 1, 2010, the U.S. Consular Exchange rate is adjusted from INR 46 to the dollar to INR 47 to the dollar. This will affect the INR equivalent for all the non-immigrant, immigrant visa and Citizenship services application fees paid on or after December 1, 2010. Effectively, the new non-immigrant visa…

Regular subscribers of the MurthyIndiaBulletin and readers of MurthyIndia.com are aware that the U.S. Visa application process has been continuously streamlined to make the application process simpler. In yet another effort to make interview dates available immediately, the U.S. Ambassador to India Mr. Timothy J. Roemer on November 18, 2010 announced that the U.S. Embassy…