The US government is not ready to commit to a time-frame by which problems related to issue of travel visas by its embassy and consulates in India and worldwide will be sorted out.

While business travellers have not yet started to feel the pinch as many have long-term multiple entry visas, students who have enrolled themselves in US universities and will shortly start their sessions could be hit if the problem continues.

“There is no resolution in sight at the moment. The system crash that happened about five-six days back has resulted in no visas being issued across the world, not just in India,” said a US Embassy spokesperson.

Emergency visas are, however, being issued and are being processed manually, the spokesperson added.

Last year, too, the Consular Consolidated Database had crashed, creating a backlog of about 2,00,000 applications. But this year, the problem is different, the US State Department said last week, without revealing what the problem was.

The US Embassy in India, in a statement issued on June 14, had said that the technical problems with the country’s overseas passport and visa systems were not specific to any particular country, citizenship document, or visa category.

A spokesperson from Yatra.com said, “Typically, people who travel to the US plan a couple of months in advance. In most cases, people get their visas around 1-2 months prior to their holiday. We haven’t heard of this glitch being faced by our customers in recent times.”

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