US cancels interviews for visa after glitch

With the US government yet to fix the technical glitch in the visa issuing system of its Department of State, citizens of India, like other countries around the world, will have to wait longer to get the US travel document.

All non-immigrant visa interviews scheduled at the US Embassy in New Delhi or the US consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad between June 22 and June 26 have been cancelled.

According to a release by the US Embassy in New Delhi, visa applicants with appointments during the period have been requested to reschedule their appointments for biometric enrollment and visa interview to a date after July 6.

"The Department of State continues to experience technical problems with our visa systems. This is a global issue, and we are working round the clock to fix it. More than 100 computer experts from both the private and public sectors across the US are working on this problem 24/7. That said, we do not expect the system will be online before next week," the US Embassy stated.

The glitch started on June 9 last following a hardware failure.