Thousands, and possibly tens of thousands of visitors to the United States may be in for a major headache after a technical glitch in the country has all but halted visa processing around the world.
A group of over 100 computer tech experts are working to resolve a glitch in the hardware system of the State Department facility since June 9. The department said they would be back up and running this week but there will be a major global backlog.
The hardware failure is preventing the “processing and transmitting the mandatory security-related biometric data checks,” Mr Kirby added.
While the US regretted the inconvenience “this is very much a security issue and that’s why we’re taking it so seriously.”
This is not the first time a glitch caused such an issue with the system. Last year a glitch related to a software patch also caused a massive backlog in the visa processing system.