Thousands of foreign nationals who live and work in the United States will travel abroad on vacation, to visit their family and relatives, or for business during the summer. Many students will be coming to the United States to commence their studies at U.S. colleges and universities. Most of these individuals will apply for entry visas at U.S. consulates and need to be prepared for a rather complicated and sometimes challenging application process. Here are the top five steps you should take to make this process go smoothly and avoid some common pitfalls that could cause delays:
1. PLAN AHEAD OF TIME AND APPLY EARLY
This is perhaps the most important aspect of the visa application process. You must plan your travel well ahead of time and start the process as early as possible. It takes time to prepare your consular visa application. It may also take extra time to schedule your interview appointment, especially if the consular appointment calendar is booked for the next few weeks. Finally, consulates take time to process visa applications and send back passports with the new visas to their owners. The consular visa application process is time consuming and you need to plan accordingly. If you wait until the last moment then you may be forced to reschedule or even cancel your travel.
2. ADDITIONAL CONSULAR REVIEW
Suppose your name is the same as someone who happens to be on one of the numerous watch lists and person-of-interest databases maintained by the United States government. Or you have a technical background and experience with technologies that may have dual (civilian and military) application. Whichever the reason, consulates may decide to further investigate certain aspects of your application or background. There are a lot of variables that may affect the likelihood of a visa application being subjected to such additional review. However, one thing is certain – such reviews usually cause additional delays, ranging anywhere from one week to several months. No visa application is immune from such additional scrutiny and you need to be ready for such eventuality.
3. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
So you have planned your trip ahead of time and are applying early. Perhaps this is not the first time you have applied for a visa and your applications have never been subject to additional review. Your visa application may still get delayed due to unforeseen events that are beyond your control. For example, the recent crash of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs visa issuance system caused unanticipated delays for all visa applicants worldwide. It is still unclear what caused this worldwide system outage but thousands of visa applicants were affected. The government is reporting that the system has been restored but you should always budget a little extra time for unexpected situations like this when you are planning your consular visa application.
4. THIRD COUNTRY PROCESSING
You may be have heard that some consular posts are “faster” or “better” for visa processing than the consulate in your home country. Perhaps you are considering applying at a third country because they have earlier appointment dates available or maybe it is more convenient for you to apply there. Most consulates accept visa applications from third country nationals, subject to the usual caution that certain visa types are better to be processed in one’s home country. Some posts, however, have explicit restrictions on which types of visa applications they would accept from third country nationals. Also, and as an extreme example, the U.S. consulates in Canada announced early in the summer that they would temporarily stop processing most visa applications from third country nationals until the end of August 2014. They were forced to resort to such a drastic measure because apparently they do not have sufficient resources to handle the increasingly high volume of visa applications during the busy summer season. If you are thinking about applying at a third country, especially during the summer or around major holidays, do your homework ahead of time and make sure the post where you wish to apply will accept your visa application.
5. HAVE YOUR DOCUMENTS READY
It may seem obvious but your visa application must be well documented. Review carefully the consular web-site and follow their application instructions. Gather all documents that are applicable to your visa type. Bear in mind that consular officers process hundreds of visa applications daily. Help them by presenting well-organized documentation and being familiar with the substance of your case. This will ultimately help you. Some consular officers may not even look at most of the documents that you diligently assembled and this is perfectly fine. Remember that it is always better to be over-prepared. If you do not have some required documents or information, the consulate will place your visa application on hold until you provide the missing items. This will most certainly cause additional delays.
In conclusion, the consular visa application process could be a strenuous and challenging experience. Keep the above five recommendations in mind the next time you apply for your visa and the entire process will go much faster and smoother.