Travel to US comes to a halt

THE inability of the US Consulate
to issue new visas is “a disaster”,
with clients standing to lose
hundreds of thousands of rands, travel
agents have warned.
The Consulate has been unable to
process visas since June 8, following
global technical problems with the US’s
biometric system. The glitch prevents
applicants’ biometric data from being
processed properly, meaning overseas
posts can’t perform the security checks
necessary to issue visas.
The US Diplomatic Mission to SA told
TNW they could not advise when the
situation would be resolved. “Currently,
we are only able to help applicants if
it is a ‘life or death’ situation. All other
travellers will need to consider delaying
or cancelling their trip to the US,” a
spokesperson for the Mission said.
Trish Lombaard, gm of Sure Giltedge
Travel, says: “Some clients have put
their US trips on hold until this mess is
sorted out. Hopefully it will be resolved
very soon.”
The situation is nothing less than a
disaster, says Yvonne Horak of Cape
Gulf Travel. She says one of her clients
received a confirmed appointment by
email from the US Consulate for June
18 in Cape Town. The client travelled
over 500km to the city with all the
necessary documents only to be told
on arrival that the appointment no
longer existed. The Consulate bluntly
refused to even acknowledge the
confirmation email. “My clients were
treated so rudely,” Yvonne says.
Yvonne received an email from
the Consulate informing her that
her clients’ account would only be
reactivated once the Consulate was
able to record appointments. “They
said they had no idea when that would
be.” She says her clients are frantic
and face massive cancellation fees.
Michelle Boshoff, national operations
manager of Pentravel, says the lack of
communication from the US Consulate
has been frustrating. She says two of
Pentravel’s clients received confirmation
that their visa application had been
approved but that the Consulate could
not print the visas. The clients hold
non-changeable and non-refundable
airline tickets for travel to the US
on July 2. “It’s wait-and-see for the
moment but they stand to lose over
R100 000 if their visas can’t be
printed,” says Michelle.
Travellers will also not be covered by
their travel insurance in this instance,
says Simmy Micheli, sales and
marketing manager of TIC. She says
TIC offers a “visa denied cover” on
most products but this cover would not
assist in this particular circumstance
as the visa has not been denied. “In
this case, the visa has just not been
processed,” she says.
At the time of going to print, a
notice on the US Department of State
website said the system would be
fully reconnected by June 26. The
department had already reconnected
39 posts but South Africa was not
among them. The department said it
would work over the weekend as there
was “a large backlog” to clear.