US visa applicants encouraged to avoid summer rush
by Michelle S - February 11, 2011
United States, 11th February: Residents of the Turks, the Bahamas and Caicos Islands are being encouraged by the US Embassy to apply earlier for US visas in order to avoid disappointments during the peak travel season of summers.
Summers usually witness huge rush of travelers wanting to go the US for cruise travel.
At present, the wait time for the US interview appointment is minimum, stated Robin Haase, the US Embassy Consulate.
And the number of US visa appointments will be reduced significantly due to upgrading of computer software from 1st April till 15th April 2011, Haase informed.
Hence, those having plans to go for cruise travel along with their families or wanting to travel to the US for meeting their friends or relatives must take benefit of applying earlier for US visas in the months of February or March this year, Haase was quoted.
While residents of Bahamas traveling to the US on commercial air carriers from the Freeport airport or the Nassau airport are not required to possess US visas, however, possession of valid US visas is mandatory for those going to the US by boarding a cruise ship.
Don’t buy air-travel tickets before getting US visas—
The US Embassy has suggested the prospective Bahamians travelling to the US not to buy travel tickets before they have been issued US visas.
Reason being that in most of the cases, the applicants for the US visas are granted visas within a span of just one day unless there is any glitch in the system following which an applicant may have to wait for as long as a couple of weeks, Haase clarified.
The US Embassy issues US student visas to applicants from the Turks, the Bahamas and Caicos Islands who aim to study in the US. The reason behind this priority for such applicants is to help them attend their study classes in the US.
The months of May till September witness huge rush of US student visa applications due to which the waiting times for getting an appointment for the interview increases from a couple of days to several weeks or even more.
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