Visa Reissuance : Avoid Rejection
Posted Mar 29, 2002

The U.S. Department of State Visa Office (DOS-VO) met with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) on March 7, 2002. The meeting covered a wide range of subjects, including visa reissuance and common reasons for rejection of requests for reissuance of visas.

DOS-VO advised that, as of February 25, 2002, they have refused approximately 13% of the total applications. The most common reasons for rejection are: submission of OF-156 instead of DS-156; omission of DS-157 for male applicants ages 16-45; failure to pay reciprocity fees; validity of current visa still in effect for more than sixty days; expiration of visa more than one year prior; and improper photos.

We remind our MurthyBulletin and MurthyDotCom readers to follow all directions carefully in order to avoid visa rejections and problems. The reissuance procedure is a valuable option for eligible persons to avoid the necessity for making a visa application at a U.S. consulate. The procedure has gained increased popularity following September 11^th. According to DOS-VO, requests for reissuance have increased approximately 20% over FY-2001.

At present, the processing time for reissuance requests is approximately 8-12 weeks. As of early March 2002 the Visa Office was still processing cases received in January of this year.

Further information regarding the reissuance procedure is available on MurthyDotCom. We have written several recent articles on the subject, including: Visa Revalidation Progress. The reissuance procedure was previously known as revalidation, a search term useful in locating information both on MurthyDotCom and the DOS WebSite.