Trinidadians face new rules when applying for US visas

(Trinidad Guardian) The US Em­bassy in Port-of-Spain has ad­vised that ef­fec­tive June 1, doc­u­ments sub­mit­ted in sup­port of a Non-Im­mi­grant Visa (NIV) in­ter­view waiv­er ap­pli­ca­tion will not be re­turned, oth­er than the ap­pli­cant’s valid and ex­pired pass­ports.

For ap­pli­cants who sub­mit­ted sup­port­ing doc­u­ments be­fore June 1, of­fi­cials said these will be re­turned as per the cur­rent prac­tice.

In a re­lease on its web­site, of­fi­cials ex­plained this was meant to sim­pli­fy the process for both the Em­bassy and the ap­pli­cants, en­abling them to process ap­pli­ca­tions faster and re­turn pass­ports and visas quick­ly.

When ap­ply­ing for a visa on­line, the sys­tem tells you based on in­for­ma­tion en­tered, whether you qual­i­fy for the in­ter­view waiv­er and what doc­u­ments to sub­mit in your pack­age.

• Doc­u­ments for re­new­al in­ter­view waiv­er:
• DS-160 Con­sular Ap­pli­ca­tion con­fir­ma­tion page with bar code
• Pho­to­copy of Sco­tia Bank re­ceipt
• Ap­pli­cant’s cur­rent pass­port with at least six months of re­main­ing va­lid­i­ty
• Pass­port con­tain­ing the most re­cent US visa
• Re­cent (less than six months old) pass­port-sized pho­to on white back­ground (with­out spec­ta­cles)
• Couri­er con­fir­ma­tion sheet

Doc­u­ments for age in­ter­view waiv­er ap­pli­cants un­der the age of 14:

• DS-160 Con­sular Ap­pli­ca­tion con­fir­ma­tion page with bar code
• Pho­to­copy of Sco­tia Bank re­ceipt
• Ap­pli­cant’s cur­rent pass­port with at least six months of re­main­ing va­lid­i­ty
• If ap­plic­a­ble, the child ap­pli­cant’s pass­port with most re­cent US visa
• Re­cent (less than six months old) pass­port-sized pho­to on white back­ground (with­out spec­ta­cles)
• Couri­er con­fir­ma­tion sheet
• Pho­to­copy of the ap­pli­cant’s birth cer­tifi­cate
• Pho­to­copy of the par­ent’s valid US visa(s)
• Parental con­sent let­ter if one of the par­ents does not have a valid visa and/or is not trav­el­ling
• Pho­to­copy of the non-trav­el­ling par­ent’s iden­ti­fi­ca­tion card or pass­port.
• DO NOT SEND orig­i­nals of any civ­il doc­u­ments

Doc­u­ments for age in­ter­view waiv­er ap­pli­cants over the age of 79:

• DS-160 Con­sular Ap­pli­ca­tion con­fir­ma­tion page with bar code
• Pho­to­copy of Sco­tia Bank re­ceipt
• Ap­pli­cant’s cur­rent pass­port with at least six months of re­main­ing va­lid­i­ty
• If ap­plic­a­ble, ap­pli­cant’s pass­port con­tain­ing the most re­cent US visa
• Re­cent (less than six months old) pass­port-sized pho­to on white back­ground (with­out spec­ta­cles)
• Couri­er con­fir­ma­tion sheet