Applicants in Istanbul have to wait nearly two years. In Canada, there is a year’s wait for appointments at some U.S. consulates in India also have similar problems. Appointment availability changes weekly and there’s no guarantee Paik can actually get one. embassy in New Delhi, the city closest to Paik’s hometown, Chandigarh. The State Department’s website shows a wait time of more than eight months to get an appointment at the U.S. consulates and embassies … closed and a backlog was created,” said Annelise Araujo, an immigration attorney and chair of the New England chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “When the pandemic happened, a lot of the U.S. Rajandeep Singh Paik lifts his nine-month-old son Siraj after getting home from work. These appointments are incredibly hard to get right now, with high demand and long wait times. To renew his visa, Paik needs to find an appointment for an in-person interview at a U.S. They can leave the United States but can’t re-enter. Paik, a rheumatologist in Malden, is among the thousands of working professionals - doctors, engineers, researchers and others - who are authorized to work and live in the U.S., but their work visas have expired so they are essentially stuck here. “We haven’t been able to meet any of our other family, any of our friends, you know, our pets back home, the streets of our hometown, the food we used to eat there,” he said. He hasn’t been home in more than two years. However, Paik, who lives in South Boston, cannot leave the United States because he wouldn’t be allowed to come back on his visa that expired during the pandemic. People are planning vacations and traveling internationally again. Rajandeep Singh Paik wants to celebrate his son’s first birthday in his hometown in India. authorities recommended applications be submitted 72 hours before travel, in most cases authorization - required to enable a passenger to check in - would be virtually instantaneous and valid for two years for multiple journeys.Dr. She said the system would help identify travelers who were not authorized to travel to the United States before they reached the country and had to be turned back. authorities believed introduction of the new system should make it easier to include more EU countries. The United States has said it plans to allow some more EU states to join its visa-free program this year and Bednarz said U.S. diplomats to get visas to travel to the European Union 2009 unless Washington moves toward granting citizens of all EU states visa-free entry by the end of the year. The European Commission said last week it would propose forcing U.S. It does not apply to 11 of the 12 mostly ex-communist countries that joined the 27-member bloc in 20, or to older member Greece. The system will require travelers to complete an online application form via the website answering questions they must currently respond to on paper forms aboard flights or ships bound for the United States.Ĭurrently only 15 EU states are covered by the visa waiver program. It will formally start on October 1 and electronic authorization will be a requirement for all citizens covered by the visa waiver program from January 12. She said a two-month pilot program for the system would be launched on August 1. Department of Homeland Security, told a news briefing in Brussels on Monday. “The ESTA is not a visa,” Jackie Bednarz, attache for the U.S. officials outlining the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) denied it would amount to reintroduction of visas - a concern voiced in the European Union - even though fees might be charged for the process in future. BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States will launch a pilot scheme on Friday which will require travelers covered by its visa waiver program to get prior Internet authorization before boarding flights to America.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |