Nairobi — The United States Embassy in Nairobi announced Friday that it had expanded the Interview Waiver Program for nonimmigrant visas in a bid to reduce visa appointment backlog.
The US Embassy said that for one to qualify for the program he/she/they must be applying for the same visa category and their visa should not have expired more than four years ago.
Formerly, the limit was one year.
“Effective immediately, those applying for tourist/business (B1/B2), student (F, J, M), or crew visas (C1/D) categories may be eligible for a visa renewal without an interview,” the US Embassy said Friday.
The Embassy said that the move is part of the recent pledge by the US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman to resolve the visa appointment crisis.
In recent months visa applicants have been facing delays in most cases of visa processing which has been attributed to closures due to COVID-19.
Last month on August 7, Whitman said that one of her top priorities will be to address the visa application delays in the country.
“The visa backlog situation has caused unnecessary hardship and is unacceptable. One of my top goals is to address this problem as quickly as possible. Strong people-to-people ties are the bedrock of our relationship,” Whitman said on her official Twitter account on August 7.