United States | US visa application website issues impacting visa processing globally

One of three primary visa scheduling websites used by the U.S. State Department — USTravelDocs.com — has been experiencing ongoing technical issues, which have significantly increased over the last few weeks, preventing visa applicants globally from applying for visas, paying processing fees and scheduling visa interviews at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad.

Key takeaways:

Visa applicants applying for visas in key U.S. visa-processing countries are experiencing significant delays when applying for U.S. visas due to technical issues on multiple U.S. government websites.

The USTravelDocs.com website has the following notice online for each country-specific portal: “The scheduling portal is currently experiencing technical issues, and applicants may encounter errors with the system during this time. We apologize for this inconvenience as we work to resolve the problem.”

Users may experience a range of issues when accessing the USTravelDocs.com portal. Notable issues include, but are not necessarily limited to, significant delays in accessing user accounts via a “waiting room” or waiting virtually “in line,” payment-related issues and login or other errors. Many users cannot access the website at all, leaving them unable to pay visa processing fees or schedule an interview.

Global mobility and World Cup impact. The impact on global mobility for the countries that depend on the USTravelDocs.com processing portal will be substantial given increased visa demand for the summer travel season, including in high-volume visa countries and in several FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifying countries.

State Department is working to resolve the issue. The State Department has acknowledged the technical issues and is working to resolve them.

Additional information: Many U.S. embassies and consulates leverage USTravelDocs.com to collect visa processing fees and for visa interview scheduling, including consular processing posts in India, Australia, Japan, Germany, Switzerland and several other countries.

In addition to the above technical issues on USTravelDocs.com, immigrant visa applicants (green cards issued abroad) are experiencing additional problems as the State Department’s Consular Electronic Application Center, the website for submitting Form DS-260, is also experiencing technical issues. Per a notice on CEAC: “Technical specialists are continuing to work on the Department of State’s consular systems. While most applicants are now able to access this site, those who are still having difficulty should wait at least 24 hours before trying again and visit http://nvc.state.gov/ for instructions.”

BAL will continue to monitor developments and provide updates.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

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