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SITUATION AT THE US CONSULATES

Visa interviews compulsory for everybody By now the US State Department has made the visa interviews compulsory for almost all visa categories, even for E-1 and E-2 work visa for employees of great corporations. That means that every applicant for a US visa, tourist or work visa, must from now on apply in person at his or her local US consulate. Exceptions are only being made for some rarely used visas such as the B. A, G and NATO-Visa and for all applicants under 14 or older than 59 year of age.

Appointments Frankfurt on Main: According to the US embassy's hotline, the scheduling of visa appointments has been suspended until August. However, by now we have been told that new interview appointments are again available, unfortunately not before September 9. As an alternative you may also show up Monday to Friday between 7am and 10am for a so-called walk-in without an appointment. In that case you should be there as early as possible since you will be facing long waiting times. You should also be prepared to receive an appointment for a later time the same day.

Berlin: As always, you can schedule your appointments via the hotline 0190-85 00 5 (for 1.83 Euro per minute Monday to Friday between 7am and 8pm, this hotline is also for Frankfurt).

At both consulates, several applicants will receive the same appointments. Here it is also advisable to show up as early as possible to avoid long waiting times.

Visa issuing Frankfurt on Main: Unfortunately, the visas will usually not be issued directly after the interview, but they will be mailed to you later (also applies to E-visas now). Until the end of the holiday season, this may take up to two weeks.

Berlin: Currently, the visa will be issued directly after the interview.

PLEASE NOTE: We have heard that applicants have registered in Berlin for a few days so they could schedule their appointment at that consulate and get their visa faster. In individual cases (last minute trips to the US) this seems to have worked since the visas were issued up to three weeks faster. However, depending on the work load in the consulate, you will not necessarily always save that much time. Furthermore we would like to point out that the US consular officer may refuse to process your applications if he has reason to suspect that you have only registered in Berlin for visa purposes and have no other ties to the city.

No transit restrictions for Visa Waiver users The US have changed their transit regulations for international flight passengers. However, the new regulations do not apply to those travelers who are eligible for the Visa Waiver Program, for example nationals of all EU countries with the exception of Greece. According to the new regulations, passengers who are changing planes in the US on their way to another country will need a visa for the US from now on. According to the reports, most transit travelers last year were from Brazil, Mexico, Korea, the Philippines, and Peru.

As a reason the US Department of Homeland Security (that is now also the head of US immigration services) stated that according to US intelligence terrorist cells are using transit regulations to enter the US without consular approval.

Passport regulations from October 1 Over the past weeks we have received many questions about the new passport regulations. That's why we have a brief overview for you today (that may still be adjusted):

From October1, 2003 all persons traveling under the Visa Waiver Program will need a machine-readable passport. In Germany that is the so-called Europapass (European passport, the wine red one). This also applies to children irrespective of their age.

Entering the US before October 1: If you enter the US before October 1 and stay beyond that date, you can still use your old travel documents, so even the child IDs for your kids and your own preliminary passport.

Entering the US after October 1: If you enter the US after October 1, all persons irrespective of their age will need a machine-readable passport for visa-free travel. It will no longer be acceptable to just list children in the parents' passport . In case you can't obtain a machine-readable passport by then, you will need a valid US visa (usually that will be a tourist visa) even for stays of less than 90 days. This visa can also be attached to a child ID. The reason is that visas are machine-readable and thus allow for the recording of personal data by border control.

For more information, don't hesitate to contact our visa department. Best use the contact form on our website.