US Announces New Non-Immigrant Visa Application Process for Iranians
December 7, 2012, Washington, D.C.– The U.S. State Department today announced a new process for obtaining US non-immigrant visas for Iranian nationals. The aim of the new policy is to help standardize and streamline the application process.
As many Iranians know, previously each embassy and consulate had its own requirements, guidelines, and calendar of available interview dates for Iranians wishing to obtain a non-immigrant visa to the United States. The calendar would open once a month and often would often be fully booked.
With the new process, applicants can arrange an interview time, pay the entire visa fee, and arrange where to pick up the visa after the interview in a few minutes by phone or the Internet. This service can be accessed 24 hours a day. It also includes more available interview dates for applicants. USA darFarsi touts the new process as less expensive and much simpler than the old one.
The new process will take effect in Turkey and Armenia in December 2012, and in the United Arab Emirates in January 2013. The locations for obtaining a visa for Iranians have not changed. Currently, the embassies and consulates in Ankara (Turkey), Dubai (UAE), and Yerevan (Armenia) have Farsi-speaking staff.
For immigrants seeking an immigrant visa, there are no changes to the existing process.
The new system will have no impact on applicants who have already obtained an interview date. As before, the applicants should take the confirmation email from the embassy and receipt of payment for the visa fee to the previously arranged interview location.
Applicants who have already paid the visa fee but have not been able to arrange an interview date cannot use their old receipt of payment as proof in the new process. Rather, they must call the embassy to which they submitted the fees and request an interview date. For this reason, USADarFarsi encourages applicants who have not yet paid the fee to wait until the new process takes effect, thus minimizing confusion.
Click here to watch the full video with detailed information about the new process.
