The U.S. Consulate in Shanghai advised on Fri. Aug. 30 that:
Due to network issues, the consular section of the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai is experiencing interruption to a range of consular services. We are working … to … restore … services…. We will not be scheduling new interview appointments until this issue is resolved.
For those who have appointments scheduled, we may not be able to conduct an interview…. We are contacting those affected on an ongoing basis. For those who have an interview, please be advised it may take up to four weeks to return your passport. We recommend that applicants with urgent travel needs apply for an interview at another embassy or Consulate location in China.
As of Monday, Sept. 2, the Consulate has provided the following update:
We have been working hard throughout the weekend to fix recent network issues that have affected our consular services and have been making progress. At this point, we advise visa applicants to plan on attending interviews as scheduled. We are also working on previous applications delayed by our technical issues. If you have questions about your application, please contact: 021-5191-5200 from 8:00 to 20:00, Monday through Friday (except holidays), or send email to: support-china@ustraveldocs.com. Please note Monday September 2 is a U.S. holiday and the consulate is closed.
As of Tuesday, Sept. 3, the Consulate had resolved the IT problem:
The U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai has resolved network issues that previously affected the ability to conduct visa services. All consular services are fully restored and operations have returned to normal. We are working as expeditiously as possible to process visas for those applicants who were approved before and during the disruption. For those who have an interview scheduled, we will be able to conduct a complete interview with standard processing times. For those planning to schedule visa interviews, please proceed as per normal procedure. We are pleased to resume normal operations and are working diligently to clear any backlog that resulted from the disruption. We appreciate your patience and understanding. For information pertaining to specific cases, please call 021-5191-5200 from 8:00 to 20:00, Monday through Friday (except holidays), or send email to: support-china@ustraveldocs.com.
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