Us Embassy in Uzbekistan Launch New Visa Appointment System

From June 10, the US Embassy in Uzbekistan will implement a new and improved visa appointment system that will allow visa applicants to obtain visa information and pay the necessary fees, make an appointment for a non-immigrant visa, and also use document courier services.

Under the new decision, candidates are eligible to pay all the required visa application fees before making an appointment with VisaGuide.Global reports.

In a statement, the US Embassy in Uzbekistan stressed that visa applicants find the following two ways to pay the visa fee:

• Pay in cash at any Tenge bank branch. Payments cannot be made at the U.S. Embassy
• Pay with a credit card in US dollars through the official website.
• The new nomination system will be accessible from June 10, with eligible visa dates for all non-immigrants from July 2 and beyond.

The new appointment system allows candidates eligible for an interview waiver to submit their visa application to the consular service via a courier service and pick up their documents at designated collection points.

U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan

The embassy stressed that visa applicants whose dates are set for June dates and who use the previous State Department scheduling system should always plan to attend their appointment as scheduled and also pay the visa fees on the spot before their interview.

With the recent decision, the embassy aims to further improve the services for visa applicants.

More than 59% visa refusal rate for Uzbek applicants in 2023

Uzbek citizens represent a significant group of applicants when it comes to US visas. However, last year’s statistics showed that in total, 59.56% of Uzbek citizens refused visas for category B visas.

The figures show that the rate is the highest in the Central Asian region, exceeding the rejection rates for Kyrgyz citizens (41.54%) and Kazakhs (41.93%).

An increase in visa refusal rates was also recorded in 2022, with the US Embassy in Tashkent refusing to issue more than 47.04% of applications submitted by citizens of Uzbekistan for the US B visa category, which includes tourist and business visas.

At the time, the US Ambassador to Tashkent, Jonathan Henik, explained why 47% of Uzbeks who applied for tourist and business visas in 2022 were refused.

I refrain from comparing the number of visas, because I do not know the statistics of visas issued to citizens of other countries. I can tell you that we interviewed more visa applicants in 2022 than in any year before the recent times and that we issued more visas in 2022 than in 2019.

The US Ambassador to Tashkent, Jonathan Henik

Figures from the US State Department revealed that, for a period from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023, visa applications were refused by almost 60% of applicants from Uzbekistan.