State Department Consular System Back Online, But Visa Issuance Delays Persist

The State Department’s consular database has resumed operations with limited capacity after last week’s outage. U.S. consulates are once again able to print visa stamps, but are giving priority to immigrant visa and adoption cases. Foreign nationals awaiting nonimmigrant visa (NIV) issuance are experiencing continued delays as the agency works through backlogs. 

Consular online status systems are also back online. NIV applicants checking the status of their cases may receive a message that their applications are in administrative processing. In most cases, this refers to the final processing and stamping of the applicant’s passport, though, as always, some applicants may be flagged for additional security clearances. 

Fragomen is closely monitoring visa issuance at U.S. consulates worldwide. We will provide further updates as we receive new information about nonimmigrant visa processing in the wake of the system outage.