6. Department of State · Minor
Streamline State's response time to foreign visa policy changes
Printed page 177 6. Department of State
“The State Department’s reaction time to other countries’ changes in visa policies with respect to the U.S. must be streamlined to ensure it can be updated in real time.”
What has happened
- Not started
Searched; nothing streamlines the process. The governing text, 9 FAM 403.8-3(B), was reissued on 2025-03-26 in the same change transmittal that tightened reciprocity, but what it says is unchanged in substance and is the opposite of real time: posts “must keep the Department informed of modifications to the visa schedule of the receiving state”, contact their Visa Office post liaison “to discuss next steps”, clear plans with CA/VO/F before approaching the host government, and clear all negotiated changes with L/CA and CA/VO/F before the Visa Office consults DHS. No automation, service standard or timeline was introduced. Nothing in the Federal Register, in the Department's 2025-2026 press index, or in the Bureau of Consular Affairs' published material announces a faster process.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Instrument read: 9 FAM 403.8 Nonimmigrant Visa Reciprocity (CT:VISA-2143, 2025-03-26), https://fam.state.gov/fam/09FAM/09FAM040308.html — cited here as the governing process rather than as Evidence, because it is not an action against the ask, just the unchanged procedure.
- Related: #479, which does move on the same FAM revision because that revision tightened the reciprocity standard even though it did not speed up the process.
- Action
- other
- Object
- State Department visa policy response process
- ID
- 480