Historically, U.S. non-immigrant visa applicants who were issued an INA 221(g) letter advising to appear for a person interview could walk-in on any weekday during specified times. With the pandemic, the consular posts started issuing letters indicating that such applicants should appear for a personal interview once the consular posts resume routine operations.

Over the past few weeks, many such applicants have received an email advising them to login to the CGI profile and schedule a follow up appointment. Some applicants who have not received such email have also been able to login and schedule a follow up appointment.

This new system does not show a calendar which one would normally see when scheduling a U.S. visa interview for the first time. Instead, the system now just lists a few dates with time options for each date and one should choose a date and time that is convenient. As of this writing, it is important to remember that the visa applicant will not be permitted to cancel or reschedule the interview date and time selected by him/her.  If the applicant is unable to appear for the interview for reasons beyond his/her control, then s/he should follow the no-show procedure and the follow up appointment option will be made available after the interview date. It is important to make a selection only after the applicant is confident that s/he will be able to attend the consular interview on the newly scheduled interview date.