US Embassy fed up over tardy visa applicants
THE United States Embassy’s Consular Section has advised Jamaicans seeking non-immigrant visas to get to their appointment on time, Otherwise, they will have to make an appointment for another interview, and that will mean a wait of at least 10 days.
The embassy’s warning on punctuality comes after it has seen many applicants disregard their scheduled appointments. This, it said, has wreaked havoc on the processing of applications, and it has delayed the issuance of visas.
Nearly three years ago, the embassy noted, it introduced a customer-friendly system that gave visa seekers appointments. The idea was to eliminate the need for repeat trips to the consular section and the long lines of people waiting hours outside the building, to secure appointments. However, the system won’t work if applicants are showing up late, said the embassy.
In addition, the embassy complained that many applicants were failing to complete their application forms but are instead leaving blank spaces, and that’s also provoking delays. Thus, the embassy has urged applicants to fill in all sections on the new application forms, and that includes sections requiring a “nil” answer.
Showing up with badly done photos is another problem, said the embassy. Many photos have been rejected because they were taken with Polaroid cameras, were on the wrong background, were too dark, or were the wrong size.
Attempting to solve that problem, the embassy has issued a notice advising visa applicants to get their photographs taken at a professional studio. It’s hoped that this will ensure that photos meet the requirements for a US visa.