US State Department due to the coronavirus pandemic allowed temporarily to issue a number of types of working visas, without conducting interviews with applicants. This is reported by TASS with reference to the statement of the foreign policy.
It follows from the document that consular officers until December 31, 2022 are allowed not to conduct personal interviews when issuing some types of non-immigrant working visas.
We are talking about visas issued at the request of potential employers in the United States and those interested in the country of qualified employees. The rules also refer to visas for employees of foreign representative offices of American companies, prominent figures of culture and sports, participants in some international programs.
At the same time, the department noted that consular workers can still have an interview if they consider it necessary.
In late October, the US State Department treated Russians to “homeless national nationalities.” This category includes citizens of countries in which the United States has no consular office or a political situation of which is considered so unstable that it does not allow employees of diplomsses to consider applications for their citizens to a visa. As a result, citizens of the Russian Federation are forced to look for alternative ways to submit documents.