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| Does Your Novia Need A Visa? https://forum.costaricaticas.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11949 |
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| Author: | Mucho Gusto [ Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:38 am ] |
| Post subject: | Does Your Novia Need A Visa? |
$14 More For A U.S. Visa; New Appointment Process Announced From Inside Costa Rica The United States Consulate has announced changes to the process of obtaining a U.S. visa that are in effect as of today. Nick Marning, manager of consular services at the U.S. Embassy in San José made the announcement yesterday in San José. With the changes, those who are desiring a visa to the U.S. now have to obtain an appointment by placing a call to a "call centre" that is located in Mexico, which has been operated by the State Department for the last five years. The process starts with a deposit of us$14 made at any Banco Nacional. Once the deposit is made, an access PIN is given that will be required for use when placing the call or an appointment. The operator at the call centre will then take the persons information and provide an appointment date and time for the interview at the Embassy. The upside is that in one call, a person can ask for an interview appointment for up to five family members. But, here is the clinker. The call has to be completed within eight - yes, eight - minutes, of the entire process, including another us$14 deposit, has to be initiated. The us$14 applies only to the Costa Rican Embassy. The fee for an appointment to the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua and Guatemala is us$15. for example. For an appointment to the embassy in Venezuela the fee is us$25. Marning assures that the new mechanism is advantageous to those desiring an appointment and that the staff of the call centre is fully capable of answering any and all questions of the requirements for obtaining a U.S. visa. "With the changes we can better services and allow us flexibility in setting appointments, reducing wait time and the call can be made from anywhere, including the U.S. to ask for an appointment", said Marning. Marning added that the Embassy will have more consular services available on its internet website, including filling out the required form that will cut down the time spent at the consular window. To be clear, the us$14 is in addition to the us$100 fee for a U.S. visa. Since 2004, 123.000 Costa Ricans have applied for a visa to the United States. According to the Consul, 80% of those requests have been approved. Marning added that the increase in the demand for visas has meant a waiting period of up 80 days for an interview. For those interested in obtaining a U.S. Visa, the number to call is 0-800-0521465 (the call is free from Costa Rica). The caller should, on placing the call, have available personal information including the cedula and passport numbers and the access PIN purchased by making a payment at any branch of the Banco Nacional. The important part is that the access PIN is only good for a period of 24 hours from making the deposit at the bank and the access PIN is good only for an 8 minute call to the call centre. |
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| Author: | Irish Drifter [ Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:23 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Did not take very long for this new system to crash. This article from the Miami Herald this morning, while slanted toward Cuba, is about the same Visa procedure in the Inside Costa Rica article. Quote: Call system for U.S. visas shut down by flood of callsThe call system for Cubans to solicit visas to travel to the United States collapsed on Friday.
BY FRANCES ROBLES frobles@MiamiHerald.com The new toll-free telephone number to book appointments for Cubans who want visas to visit the United States was suspended Friday after half a million calls in a single day crashed the system, the U.S. Interests Section in Havana said. It was unclear whether the 500,000 calls represented legitimate callers seeking the appointments or an act of sabotage designed to shut down the system. The call-in system lasted just six days. A call center in Mexico opened on May 25 and got 10,000 calls the first day. ''The next day it was 13,000, and yesterday 15,000,'' said Interests Section spokesman Drew Blakeney. ``While there had been a linear increase, the increase by a factor of 10 today [Friday] was way beyond anything contemplated.'' Last fiscal year, the U.S. diplomatic office in Havana processed 30,000 applications. Appointments to apply for nonimmigrant visas were booked through the end of January in the six days the call center operated, the Interests Section said in a brief statement. Because of the server crash, the Interests Section suspended further appointments for non-immigrant visas but will honor those already scheduled. The move does not affect those who seek visas to move to the United States permanently. In April, the U.S. State Department announced the 1-800 number as a way to expedite the way that Cubans seek visas for visits to the United States. Cuban-Americans in the United States could call the number to apply for appointments for friends or relatives on the island, ending a system that had been manipulated by Cuban hustlers who charged Cubans up to $100 for visa appointments. Moving the call center to Mexico and having the calls placed from the United States was billed as a way to build transparency into the visa application process. The appointments cost $11 and could be requested for up to five people. The 1-800 number, Blakeney said, has been cut off indefinitely. ''It's very troubling,'' he said. |
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