US Embassy eases document processing in Nepal

The US Embassy based in the Nepal capital, Kathmandu, will start easing document processing for the benefit of tourists and students applying for visas starting June 1. The new rules will need tourist and student visa applicants to bring fewer documents than before when they attend a visa interview. A statement issued by the US Embassy on May 16 said that this measure was introduced to protect visa applicants from possible frauds, besides saving them time and money. Henceforth, applicants need not have letters of invitation, land titles, bank statements or any other related documents in person. The visa applicants need only bring their passports, any prior passports, photographs, application fee payment receipts, DS-160 confirmation page and I-20 (in the case of student visa applicants). It also said that the US Embassy crosschecks the genuineness of all academic transcripts which students bring to interviews. The US Embassy at Kathmandu, in the recent past, had been receiving complaints from visa applicants who were swindled by unscrupulous consultancies who made students pay for organising or procuring documents for their interviews, which were not actually required by consular officers. It also received complaints about consultants who made false promises to visa applicants of obtaining visas for them by using their documents to steal their information. It is also likely that the US Embassy in Delhi will also make document processing easier as America has been sharing cordial relations with India in the last two decades.