Want a US Visa? Get Online!

Effective November 1, all applicants for visitor visas (non-immigrant visas, or NIVs), including applicants at the US Embassy in Barbados, will be required to use the Electronic Visa Application Form (EVAF). The typewritten or hand-written DS-156 NIV application form used to date will no longer be accepted as of November 1. The EVAF is available on-line at the Embassy’s website at http://bridgetown.usembassy.gov/visas_to_us.html, and at the website of the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs at http://evisaforms.state.gov/.

NIV applicants who use the Embassy’s on-line system at http://evisaforms.state.gov/SchedulingSystem.asp to book their interview appointments must already fill out the EVAF before requesting the appointment. The system will only accept an appointment request after the applicant enters the barcode number generated at completion of the EVAF. After the applicant completes the EVAF on line, it must be printed out and brought to the interview, with the page containing the barcode generated by the EVAF application.

US Consul General Clyde Howard estimates that “over 60 per cent of all NIV applications submitted in Barbados already use the EVAF, and that number is rising rapidly. We will accept the old hand- or typewritten DS-156 in genuine emergencies, but in most cases, applicants who do not bring an EVAF to their interview will be asked to complete one before their application will be accepted.”