A recent tweet by the U.S. consulate in Chennai indicates that all routine services, regular non-immigrant visa appointments, interview waiver appointments and routine American Citizen Services appointments are cancelled through June 4, 2021.  The tweet also updates that the post will make every attempt to honor scheduled emergency appointments. The Chennai VAC will be open…

President Biden on April 30, 2021 signed a proclamation suspending entry of certain persons who pose risk of transmitting COVID-19.Since India has a sudden surge of COVID-19 over the past few weeks, this proclamation suspends entry of certain non-immigrants / non-citizens of the United States who were physically present within the Republic of India during the…

Given the pandemic, interviews will be very limited at the consular posts in India when they resume services. If one requires an appointment for the interview in a local language and no local language appointments are available, one should select the option for an appointment in the English language and later on, request a translator…

The Indian Government vide Ministry of Home Affair’s notification no. MHA’s O.M. No. 25022/28/2020 dated 30.03.2021 has restored e-Visa for the following categories with immediate effect: • e-Business Visa• e-Medical Visa •e-Medical Attendant Visa and• e-Conference Visa List of countries whose nationals are eligible for e-Visa facility can be found here. We will continue to monitor and…

We reported that the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai has limited operations to emergency services and U.S. visa applicants, both immigrant and non-immigrant have started receiving communication regarding cancellation of appointments. Following this, we noticed today that B1/B2 applicants have started receiving cancellation emails for their in-person appointments. There is no official press release on this…

The U.S. consulate in Mumbai has tweeted that with immediate effect, the U.S. consulate in Mumbai will provide only essential services until further notice. This comes at the wake of increase in COVID-19 cases in India. Some Immigrant and Non-Immigrant visa applicants who have an appointment scheduled with the U.S. consulate in Mumbai will be…

This update is for foreign nationals, holding status as Overseas Citizens of India (OCI). The Indian Embassy in the U.S. issued this clarification in late March 2021. OCI card holders who obtained a new passport after crossing the age of 20 or 50, respectively, generally require reissuance of the OCI card. This requirement has been…

Historically, U.S. non-immigrant visa applicants who were issued an INA 221(g) letter advising to appear for a person interview could walk-in on any weekday during specified times. With the pandemic, the consular posts started issuing letters indicating that such applicants should appear for a personal interview once the consular posts resume routine operations. Over the…

The Biden administration has allowed the Presidential Proclamation 10052 to sunset on March 31, 2021. The U.S. Department of State (DOS) update on this topic and its implications can be found here. That proclamation had suspended / limited entry of certain H, L and J applicants originally until December 31, 2020 and later it was extended…

If a U.S. lawful permanent resident (LPR) stays outside the United States for over a year without a re-entry permit, then s/he is considered to have abandoned the status as LPR and needs a “Returning Resident (SB-1) visa” to return to the United States. LPRs need to primarily live and be domiciled in the United…