Ten days after a technical glitch caused the major outage, U.S. Visa System is back online. The Bureau of Consular affairs reports that the State Departments are now issuing passports at overseasdiplomatic missions after the database snag responsible for handling biometric clearances has been rebuilt and is being tested.

The Directorate encountered a significant hardware problem on June 12 causing delays around the world for globetrotters as well as for some Americans, who are in need of travel documents.

However, the database failure didn’t affect the domestic passport issuance. The technical snag is the second of its kind this year in the consular database.

“39 posts, representing more than two-thirds of our normal capacity, are now online and issuing visas. We are working to restore full biometric data processing,” quoted The Bureau of Consular Affairs in Travel.State.Gov website.

Spokesman John Kirby says 45,000 visas were finalized Monday, a third of those in China. He says 33 U.S. embassies and consulates are back online and the visa interviews will restart from Wednesday.

He even quoted that the team is working 24/7 to clear the backlogs and put the whole system back on the track. He deeply regrets the inconvenience to travelers waiting for visas and apologized to the travelers and requested them to recognize the glitch which causes the hardship.

For latest updates on the availability of interview appointment and the messages, please visit travel.state.gov.

For a consulate, which handles an extensive average of 50,000 applications a day across the globe, the gap is a huge loss. During the past two weeks, consular sections have continued to interview travelers who applied June 8 or earlier.  Interviews will now be available for those who applied after June 8.  

“We are already prioritizing urgent humanitarian cases and temporary agricultural workers.  We are working as quickly as possible to clear the backlog of pending visa cases”, said one of the officials.

We apologize to travelers and recognize that this has caused hardship to some individuals waiting for visas.

- Manohar