Recently, the U.S. Department of State's visa system database experienced severe operational issues, resulting in a backlog of U.S. visa applications worldwide, with China also being affected. The U.S. Embassy in China stated today that it kindly requests non-immigrant visa applicants with appointments on August 1st to reschedule. Currently, the cause of the database anomaly is unclear, and it is impossible to predict how long the delays in visa operations will last.
At present, the U.S. visa system has not yet fully recovered, and a significant portion of the global visa backlog is still awaiting processing.
A notice on the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs website states that the U.S. is still working to restore full system operations, which is expected to take several weeks. Currently, U.S. visa operations are prioritizing immigrant visas, including adoption cases. Although there are some delays, most applications can generally be processed.
Today, U.S. Embassy in China spokesperson Nolan Barkhouse stated that in order to focus on processing the document backlog caused by the system issues, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the Consulates General in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang have requested all non-immigrant visa applicants with appointments on August 1st (Friday) to reschedule their interviews. Immigrant visa interviews at the Consulate General in Guangzhou are not affected.
Barkhouse said that if this system shutdown has affected an applicant's non-immigrant visa interview, please reschedule. The fastest and most convenient way is to visit http://www.ustraveldocs.com/cn/index.html, log in to your appointment account, and select a new date and time for your non-immigrant visa interview.
The U.S. Embassy in China expressed sincere regret for any delays, inconvenience, or potential costs incurred by applicants. The U.S. side is making every effort to return passports and visas as soon as they are processed.
