Starting today, March 16, 2020 all US Consulates in India have cancelled all its visa appointments in view of the Coronavirus pandemic until further notice. This includes all immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments that are processed in any US Embassy and Consulate within India.

While there is no end-date mentioned, services are tentatively suspended at least until the end of April. As the spread of Coronavirus is monitored and evaluated, a more concrete date will be announced by the US Embassy when services can resume. At that point in time, applicants will be notified whether partial or regular services will be offered. Accordingly, all consular operations including cancelled visa appointments will be allowed to be rescheduled.

What You Should Know About Visa Appointment Cancellations

While all visa appointments are cancelled due to US consulate closures, several other immigration and non-immigration services are also going to be severely impacted. Here’s what you should know –  

• ALL immigrant and non-immigrant visa appointments including current and future ones are cancelled until further notice
• Once US Consulate operations resume, appointments can be rescheduled
• The visa appointment fee if already paid, need not be resubmitted
• DropBox services continue to be honored. However, you should call your local US Consulate to confirm office timings before submitting Dropbox documents.

• Non-immigrant 221(g) continues to be processed in certain US consulates within non-infected regions of India. Please confirm with your local US Consulate before setting up an appointment for the next eight weeks.
• Immigrant 221(g) processing has been completely suspended until further notice.
• Biometric services are still available in some US consulates. This is subjective to the discretion of each US consulate. 
• Certain urgent travel requirements are still being addressed and processed in these US consulates staffed with limited officers. You are advised to review the updates see www.ustraveldocs.com/in  and in.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/ for further information.
• Personal and business urgent travel might be accommodated. Finding the earliest available visa appointment date in an urgency requires you to fill out the DS-160 first.

Stay tuned for the latest updates and developments of how Coronavirus Pandemic will affect your US immigration.