Visa Revalidation Delays Caused by Anthrax Concerns
Posted Jan 18, 2002

As published in the December 21, 2001 MurthyBulletin, in an article entitled, Anthrax Causes Delays in Visa Revalidations at DOS, available on MurthyDotCom, certain requests for revalidation of visas within the U.S. by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) revalidation office in St. Louis, Missouri, were delayed due to problems with anthrax decontamination. The earlier article revealed that some visa applications had been misplaced in the decontamination process. The most recent update on that situation, issued January 14, 2002, is that the decontamination process is ongoing.

The Revalidation Unit of the Visa Office has advised that the BioChemical Working Group is engaged in decontaminating approximately 100,000 pieces of mail. The mail includes revalidation requests, over 2,000 diplomatic pouches, and DOS personnel mail. The Revalidation Unit reported that they are currently working on cases filed November 9, 2001. They have hired new staff to assist with this workload and are continuing to work overtime to solve the problems.

Due to the large number of visa revalidation applicants of Indian nationality, the Visa Office has advised the Indian Embassy of the situation. The Indian Embassy has been given a list of affected applicants, in the event that these individuals are now required to apply for new passports to travel abroad prior to completion of the decontamination.