Business travellers to the US face the prospect of cancelling flights and other travel plans after technical problems have halted all visa applications.
The US embassy in Grosvenor Square, London has not issued visas for over 7 days with the problem not expected to be resolved before next week.
The American embassy in London said: “The Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs is currently experiencing technical problems with its visa systems.
“The issue is not specific to any particular country or visa category. These issues have resulted in delays in printing visas and may mean rescheduling some visa interviews. We are working urgently around the clock to correct the problems and restore our system to full operational status ... We regret the inconvenience to travellers.”
The fault is reportedly affecting computers that deal with the security-related biometric checks at embassies. As this data is mandatory in processing applications the failure has hit the entire system.
US officials said there is “no evidence” it was the result of a cyber-attack.
The US State Department has advised travellers to continue checking for updates at travel.state.gov
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