Mass cancellation of nonimmigrant US visa appointments triggers panic: State Department says it’s for training

Mass cancellation of nonimmigrant US visa appointments triggers panic: State Department says it's for training
US embassies and consulates cancel all visa appointments internationally till September 1.

Hundreds of visa candidates all internationally obtained emails from their embassies and consulates that their visa appointment has been cancelled and will probably be rescheduled solely after September 1. This occurred to non-immigrant visa candidates, which embody scholar visas, work visas, tourism visas, and many others. The emails unfold panic as they got here within the backdrop of a number of visa-related developments coming from the State Division. These mass cancellations had been reported not from any particular nation however sporadically from all throughout.“We remorse to tell you that your upcoming nonimmigrant visa interview appointment has been cancelled. Your interview can’t be accommodated till after 1 September 2026. It’s possible you’ll apply on the US Embassy/Consulate in your nation of nationality. We remorse any inconvenience this will likely trigger,” one Redditor reported receiving this mail from non-immigrant visa unit of US embassy, Saudi Arabia.

State Division’s order to all embassies and consulates

The New York Instances reported that this was an instruction from the State Division to all embassies and consulates that they have to reschedule all visa interviews till consular workplaces full coaching periods on a “extra restrictive coverage”. And these coaching periods will happen this week. And therefore, the State Division despatched this instruction to all workplaces on Monday, triggering the cancellations.In these coaching periods, consular officers will probably be educated to disclaim immigrant visas (Inexperienced Card utility, asylum) to candidates who will depend upon authorities help if they’re in the USA.“In early August, we launched a worldwide coaching initiative in any respect of our embassies and consulates worldwide. To accommodate this in-depth coaching, appointments for visa providers will probably be adjusted,” the State Division mentioned to New York Instances.The cancellation emails despatched shockwaves to candidates, as an identical rescheduling of appointments introduced in December 2025 led to main chaos and a bottleneck, and there may be nonetheless a backlog due to that rescheduling, which was necessitated by the brand new rule of social media vetting for H-1B visa holders.The NYT report mentioned that separate of this emergency appointment cancellation order, the Trump administration is planning to revoke visas of overseas residents who got here to the US for tourism or enterprise however then utilized for asylum to turn out to be a everlasting resident. The division has began reviewing such visas and round 200,000 individuals are estimated to turn out to be unlawful if the federal government cracks down on these visas.

Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *