U.S. Embassy Resumes Consular Operations

Mellissa Sandoval

The United States Embassy in Belmopan is resuming its operations after almost a year of dormancy due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  During that time, there has been a significant backlog of applications and renewals.  The good news is the U.S. Embassy has decided to automatically extend the length of time from one year to four years for persons whose visas have expired and need to be renewed.  Vice Consul Mellissa Sandoval explains the process and how you can qualify for the program.

Mellissa Sandoval, Vice Consul, U.S. Embassy

“For interview waiver program, instead of applicants being eligible if their visa expired within the last twelve months, now we have expanded the timeframe to forty-eight months.  So essentially, if your visa has expired within the last four years and you’re applying within the same visa category, for example, if you’re applying for a tourist visa and you previously had a tourist visa or if you’re applying for a transit visa and you’re reapplying for that then you qualify.  As long as you’re applying within the same visa category.  So that is the good news that we wanted to deliver to applicants as a way to address our backlog and reduce the number of applicants to appear at the embassy to maintain safety and health measures for both the applicants and our staff alike.”