As we previously reported, the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs has been experiencing technical problems with its passport and visa system causing delays. The Department reports that it has made significant progress and has now issued most of the backlog of nonimmigrant visas. The Department is nonetheless still working on getting its databases working to full capacity again. Accordingly, visa applicants may still experience delays of up to one week (on top of regular processing times) as problems are worked out. The Department has noted that it is prioritizing immigrant visas, adoption cases, and emergency nonimmigrant visas. These types of cases are currently experiencing only minimal delays.
The technical problems reportedly stem from maintenance and software updates made on July 20 which were intended to improve overall system performance and address previous performance issues. However, a root cause has not yet been identified.