The United States is set to ditch visa stickers, and replace them with digital visas, though the complete transition might take at least 18 months to happen.
During an in-person and on-the-record briefing, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services in the Bureau of Consular Affairs Julie M. Stufft, has revealed that the first small-scope pilot program of a paperless visa has resulted successful, VisaGuide.World reports.
It’ll take us probably 18 months to have widespread use of this – or longer – but it’s very exciting that we’ve had this first step where we’ve actually seen visitors come through, and in this case they were immigrant visas, without a physical paper in their passport.
She further pointed out that in the future, US visa holders will need an app or something similar to show their visa status, instead of carrying the visas in sticker format in their passport.
Responding to journalists’ questions, she explained that the visa process will remain unchanged, as well as the visa fees. Visa interviews will continue to be required for some people.
This saves everyone – I can’t tell you – a tremendous amount of effort in getting these very secure visa foils shipped out to all of our posts overseas, and this is just basically a very modern way to speak to the airlines and to the ports of entry at airports and the State Department all together to make this happen.
In September 2023, the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs announced it was working to replace traditional printed visas with digital visa authorization (DVA). The pilot was first launched in Ireland, where the US Embassy in Dublin started issuing DVAs to those obtaining K-1 (fiancé(e)) visas.
Alongside with the issuance of the first DVAs, the airlines and border guards were notified on the changes.
At the time, the Bureau had noted that if the initial pilot would show success, the embassy would extend the issuance of DVAs to other US visa categories.
US’ move to introduce digitalized visas follows the European Union’s plans to do the same thing. The Schengen states are working on making the complete visa application online, also replacing sticker visas with QR codes. The EU hopes to introduce online Schengen visa applications in 2026.