DOS Revalidation Unit Receives Irradiated Applications
Posted Apr 26, 2002

On April 12, 2002 the MurthyBulletin and MurthyDotCom reported in our article entitled, Passports Released After Irradiation that approximately 50 passports were released to the U.S. Department of State (DOS), Visa Revalidation Unit (RU) after a lengthy delay caused by the anthrax irradiation process. A few days after the publication of that article the RU reported that they had received five additional boxes of applications that had been delayed due to the additional security and irradiation procedures necessitated by the incidents of anthrax transmission via mail. We continue to monitor the problems and progress within the RU for our MurthyBulletin and MurthyDotCom readers who utilize the visa reissuance procedure available through the RU and are affected by the delays.

Each of the five boxes contains approximately 50 applications and the DOS' RU is hopeful they now have all the cases that were previously missing. The RU is telephoning all affected applicants or their attorneys to confirm receipt of the particular passport and visa application.

Further information regarding the Revalidation Unit, the visa reissuance process, and the anthrax problem is available on MurthyDotCom in our February 15, 2002 article, Visa Revalidation Progress and Anthrax Causes Delays in Visa Revalidation at DOS posted December 21, 2001.