Technical glitch delays US passports, visas

The United States on Friday said it was experiencing difficulties issuing passports and visas from consular offices around the world because of technical problems.

The problem affects all passport applications made overseas on or after May 26. 

Additionally, people who submitted online applications or were interviewed for visas on or after June 9 were subject to delays, the US State Department said.

"This issue is not specific to any particular country, citizenship document, or visa category," a statement read.

Officials said the issue was not related to another problem that affected its passport systems last summer. It did not say if the outage was related to a hack or malicious action.

The State Department said domestic passports were not hit and that it could still issue emergency passports to US citizens overseas for urgent travel.

The United States maintains the largest diplomatic and consular network in the world, with some 70,000 people employed by the State Department and its various departments. — Agence France-Presse

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