The United States has further expanded opportunities to renew US visas without having to come to the US Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados for an in-person interview.
These new “interview waiver” procedures will ease travel to the United States for many visitors who do not live in Barbados, as well as contribute to mitigating exposure to Covid-19.
Most citizens and passport holders of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines can now renew their visas without having to come to the US Embassy in Bridgetown.
Previously, only those applicants whose nonimmigrant visa expired within 24 months were eligible for an interview waiver. This period has been temporarily extended to 48 months until 31 December 2021. In other words, any applicant whose visa expired within the 48 months prior to the date of application is eligible for an interview waiver for a visa application in the same classification until 31 December 2021. Applicants should visit our website to review all the criteria to determine whether they qualify for the Renewal Interview Waiver. Applicants who have not previously held a valid visa or whose visa expired more than 48 months ago will be required to appear at the US Embassy for an in-person interview.
The US Embassy in Barbados is currently interviewing applicants for emergency travel only.
For further information, please visit bb.usembassy.gov or ais.usvisa-info.com/en-bb/niv
US Embassy, Bridgetown
It’s a very good idea 100%
TELLING IT AS IT IS — a proposal & commentary
Commonsense Approach Needed: Cancel New Visa Waiver Expansion and Utilize Zoom & Video-Conferencing for All Visa Applicants
By Gerry Hopkin JD
This new interview waiver expansion, is much ado about nothing much.
Why not simply have all applicants do a Zoom or Video-Conferencing interview, utilizing the equipment/technology that has been long available at the U.S. Charge d’ Affairs office, an extension of the US Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados?
We must PROPERLY REQUEST and NEGOTIATE WITH THE U.S. STATE DEPT to get the US Embassy in Barbados to CONDUCT VISA INTERVIEWS on-island in GRENADA using AVAILABLE Video-Conferencing/Zoom technology.
LOW INCOME GRENADIAN (OECS) applicants will SAVE MONEY (travel fares, hotel, food, etc) and SAVE TIME, if they can simply participate in the video/zoom interview from the already equipped US Embassy Office in L’ance aux Epines, St. George’s, Grenada or in whichever OECS country an applicant resides.
If the Government of Grenada really cares about helping struggling low income people to save their already limited money, our PM and his diplomats would be strongly requesting, demanding and negotiating for this, in consideration of all of the support in terms of alignment and UN and OAS votes that Grenada generally gives to the US foreign policy agenda as a nation-state and as an influential member of the OECS, of CARICOM and of the OAS.
It’s better to try and fail than to fail to try.
It can be done if the leaders and diplomats of Grenada (and of the other OECS states, as well) decide to plan, organize and apply themselves to doing it.
Part of the strategy must be to engage Grenadian and other Caribbean-American citizens in the USA (in the Diaspora) to apply pressure on their elected reps in the U.S. Congress (House & Senate) who have the ears of President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris at the White House.
The goal must be to get the US State Department to do the commonsense thing that would be safe during these COVID-19 times, and would certainly save lots of time and money for visa applicants in Grenada and in other similarly situated islands in the Caribbean.
Three Simple Steps:
1) Folks will reserve/apply for an interview online (as currently done).
2) Then an appointment date will be set by the US Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados.
3) Then Grenadian visa applicants would walk to, or drive to, or take a taxi to, or take a bus to the US Charge d’ Affairs office (Embassy’s office) in L’ance aux Epines, St. George’s, Grenada to participate in their already scheduled interview via Zoom or online videoconferencing, utilizing equipment that’s already available at the said US Charge d’ Affairs office. The interviewers, of course, would be stationed in the US Embassy in Barbados or wherever else in the world, where there are under-utilized Immigration Officers that are trained to conduct visa application interviews.
Following the three steps proposed above would save lots of money and time for both the US Embassy and Grenadians and other OECS visa applicants.
In particular, the many struggling applicants who are sacrificing year after year to save for airfares to Barbados and for hotel and food costs in the said country, are turned down each year, after having suffered the burden of the costs mentioned above, can be spared that extra waste if funds, if they are allowed to be interviewed in their homeland.
The approach proposed here is a commonsense approach which is based on simple, safe, neutrally objective logic, which saves money and time and reduce undue psychological stress, the kind which folks suffer after leaving their homeland for an interview, only to be told abroad, what they could have been told at home with their airfare, hotel cost and Bajan restaurant food money still in hand/saved for a rainy day.
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This should be a permanent solution as it is an added expense for those wishing to travel to the US.
We now have Zoom so why not use this in the event of having to do an interview.
Thank you for the information