The United States Embassy in Colombia released a new update on the status of visa services on Monday. and announced changes in the procedure to access the respective document.
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However, the modifications are specifically for the application of non-immigrant visas.
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The representative of the embassy, deputy head of Non-Immigrant Visas, indicated in a video how the procedure for scheduling interview appointments will be.
“At this moment there are many Colombians who are traveling to the United States to participate in exchange programs, students and people who are going to work with petition visas.”, explained the diplomat.
With the new measures, it established that during the next four to five weeks there will be appointments available for visa classes F, M, H, J, L, P and O, which correspond to exchange or work programs.
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“In the coming months, all of our officers will be working every day at the embassy to process these kinds of visas,” the official added.
In those that have to do with the B1 and B2 visas, which correspond to tourism and business, the deputy chief affirmed that they are working on processing those documents.
In recent weeks, there were more than 1,000 people every day who were doing their interviews at the embassy
“In recent weeks, there were more than 1,000 people every day who were doing their interviews at the embassy,” however, given the high demand, the availability for these appointments is for 2024.
The official explained that one of the changes is the need for an interview for the document, so that as of that date there will be some people who can advance in the process without the need to attend a face-to-face meeting at the embassy.
“In the new process, when the person fills out their visa application in our system, the system will say if the person qualifies for the visa without an interview.”, specified the representative of the American embassy.
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The embassy explained that there is a system to apply for a visa without an interview, which will now take two to three months. The previous system was that people who have already had a visa of the same class or who are under 14 years old or over 79, could apply for the exemption.
From that moment on, the embassy program will offer you an appointment to leave your passport at the Bogotá office. With this, the entity will not spend too much time with that important document for the citizen during the visa approval waiting period. “There are people who may need to travel outside the country at such times and need their passport”added the entity.
Likewise, the embassy stressed that the option of sending papers such as the passport through the DHL courier service will no longer exist, but that there will be a wait to leave these documents by means of an appointment.
“We believe that with this process a more convenient service will be offered to applicants, because their passports will be in the embassy for less time: it is weeks instead of months,” the video highlights.
For those who completed a visa renewal process with an interview, and the passport was withheld, it will be returned a maximum of two weeks after the interview.
Finally, the embassy clarified some rumors about the appointments of the interviews that ensured that there were supposed services that could advance the meeting to a closer date if an amount of money was paid.
To this, the deputy chief replied: “We never charge anything for appointments, at any time. These services are a fraud and this has a very negative impact on the applicant and then we also have to deny the visa”.
(You may be interested in: Who is the butcher of Syria, which according to the US, is leading the war in Ukraine)In the following video you can find out all the details in the visa process.
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