Update on Visa Services at U.S. Consular Posts in Response to Coronavirus Outbreak
In response to the coronavirus outbreak, visa services at the U.S. Embassy and Consulates General in mainland China have been suspended since February 3, 2020. It is not known at this time how long the suspension of visa services will remain place. The visa information website for U.S. Mission in China has been updated with the following information:
As of February 3, 2020, regular visa services at the U.S Embassy in Beijing and the U.S. Consulates General in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang are suspended, including interview waiver applications. Due to the ongoing situation relating to the novel coronavirus, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates have very limited staffing and may be unable to respond to requests regarding regular visa services.
Effective Wednesday February 12, please do not submit an Interview Waiver application at CITIC as those will not be accepted until further notice.
If during this period you have urgent travel that you believe may qualify for an exemption under the proclamation, please go to https://ustraveldocs.com/cn/index.html to submit an emergency appointment request. Please note if your urgent travel does not qualify under an exemption, your request will be denied until the proclamation is rescinded.
Pickup your passport at a CITIC location during February 10 - February 16: If you have received an email to inform you your passport is ready for collection at the CITIC location you choose when scheduling your interview appointment, you can check here if that CITIC branch is open or not. In case the location you choose is not available and you have an emergency, please call the CITIC hotline at 95558 and CITIC staff will help you to coordinate your passport pickup.
US Embassies and Consulates General outside of China are strongly encouraging individuals with pending consular appointments who (1) were physically present within the People's Republic of China, excluding the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, within the last 14 days, (2) are experiencing flu-like symptoms or, (3) believe they may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus, to postpone their appointments by at least 14 days. However, we have received some reports from individuals applying outside of China that the U.S. Embassy has refused to schedule them and rescheduled their appointment until a later date.
Please note that the U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong and Macau will operate at reduced staffing levels at the request of the Hong Kong SAR government. In addition, on February 11th the U.S. Department of State announced that it had authorized non-essential consulate staff and their family members to voluntarily depart Hong Kong amid concerns of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.