In our previous bulletin, we had informed readers about the changes in the visa application fees for immigrant and non-immigrant visas. Subsequent to this, with effect from Monday, April 23, 2012, the U.S. Consular Exchange rate has been adjusted as INR 54 to one USD. This revision in the exchange rate will affect the INR…

As you are aware, the US Citizenship services section of the U.S. Consulate General, Chennai organizes “Outreach Program” at Bangalore periodically to help US Citizens. The next outreach program at Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) is scheduled from May 16, to May 18 of 2012. US Citizens can avail the following services with prior confirmed appointments: Apply…

A press release dated March 29, 2012 by the Department of State, which is also available on the U.S. Consulate, Chennai’s website notifies that effective April 13, 2012 the visa processing fee is revised. This revision results in an increase in fee for most commonly used non-immigrant visas. The fee for certain non-immigrant and all…

A very recent change on VFS website indicates availability of waiver of visa interview for certain non-immigrant visa applicants. As of this writing, other than a reference to this on the VFS website’s home page; there is no formal update or news flash either on the VFS or consular website. Following this, one of the…

Effective February 1, 2012 all communication related to Immigrant Visas at U.S. Consulate in Mumbai needs to be directed through infousmumbai@vfshelpline.com. Previously, all communication was directed to mumbaiiv@state.gov. As reported earlier, effective January 2012, the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai handles immigrant visa applications from States of Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, and the Union…

A recent update on the VFS site indicates that with effect from December 27, 2010 the timing for collection of passport is changed to 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.. Perviously, the passport collection time was from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. This update can be found here.

Over the past few days, if one enters “www.vfs-usa.co.in” it is routed to an error message. This error message also indicates that this site needs to be viewed over secure channel and that , one needs to prefix “https://”. Effectively, to access the VFS website, one needs to key in “https://www.vfs-usa.co.in” on the address bar.…

The retrieve option for the form DS-160 has been restored. Applicant(s) looking to use this feature to retrieve partially completed forms will be able to do so now.

We received several inquiries from U.S. non-immigrant visa applicants indicating their inability to retrieve or upload partly completed U.S. non-immigrant visa application form DS-160. This error has also been confirmed by Attorneys at Murthy Immigration Services Private Limited. We trust this issue will be resolved later during the day. This update is to keep non-immigrant…

We had originally reported on December 1, 2011 that all immigrant visa applications for South India would be processed by the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai. This was officially updated on the VFS website on January 20, 2012 and this update can be found here. A news update on the English Daily “The Hindu” indicates that the…