Starting on June 10, the United States Embassy in Uzbekistan will launch a new and improved visa appointment system enabling visa applicants to obtain visa information and pay required fees, schedule a nonimmigrant visa appointment and also receive document courier services.
Following the new decision, applicants will be eligible to pay any required visa application fees before making an appointment, at VisaGuide.World reports.
Through a statement, the US Embassy in Uzbekistan has stressed that visa applicants will find the following two options in order to make the visa fee payment:
- Pay in cash at any Tenge Bank branch. Payments cannot be made at the US Embassy
- Pay with a credit card in US Dollars through the official website.
The new appointment system will be accessible from June 10, with visa appointment dates for all non-immigrants being eligible from July 2 and beyond.
Through the new appointment system, applicants qualifying for an interview waiver will be able to submit their visa application to the Consular Section through a courier service and receive their documents back at designated pick-up locations.
The Embassy has emphasized that visa applicants with appointments set for dates in June using the Department of State’s previous scheduling system should still plan to attend their appointment as scheduled and also pay the visa fee on-site before their interview.
Through the recent decision, the Embassy aims to further improve services for visa applicants.
Over 59% Visa Denial Rate for Uzbek Applicants in 2023
Uzbekistan citizens account for a significant group of applicants when it comes to US visas. However, last year’s statistics revealed that for B-category visas, the US authorities denied visas to a total of 59.56 percent of Uzbeki citizens.
The figures reveal that the rate is the highest in the Central Asian region, exceeding the denial rates for Kyrgyz (41.54 per cent) and Kazakh citizens (41.93 per cent).
A surge in visa denial rates was also registered in 2022, with the US Embassy in Tashkent refusing to issue more than 47.04 percent of applications filed by nationals of Uzbekistan for the US B-visa category that includes tourist and business visas.
Back then, the United States Ambassador in Tashkent, Jonathan Henik, talked about why 47 per cent of Uzbeks who applied for tourist and business visas in 2022 were denied.
I refrain from comparing the number of visas because I do not know the statistics of visas issued to citizens of other countries. I can tell you that we interviewed more visa applicants in 2022 than in any year before the coronavirus pandemic, and we issued more visas in 2022 than in 2019.
The figures from the US State Department revealed that for a period from October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023, visa applications of nearly 60 percent of applicants from Uzbekistan were denied.