National Visa Center (NVC) Will No Longer Accept Inquiries Through Mail

The National Visa Center (NVC) is a center that is part of the U.S. Department of State that processes United States immigrant visa petitions (as well as Form I-129F petitions for K-1/K-3 visas) approved by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The NVC will hold the application until an immigrant visa number becomes available for the petition based on the visa bulletin processing date for the respective countries. All countries with the exception of China, Mexico, India, an the Phillipines have limited to no wait times but the aforementioned country nationals might have years of waiting before they are entitled to receive permanent residence. The NVC is crucial for the immigration process initiating the consular processing of all family based and employment based immigrant petitions including setting up immigrant visa appointments abroad at the US consulates at the respective cities and countries.

On May 4, 2020, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced that beginning on June 1, 2020, the National Visa Center will no longer accept or respond to inquiries through mail. The DOS explains that the National Visa Center has modernized the way we pre-process visa applications. This will allow the NVC to streamline services to case parties and to U.S. Embassies and Consulates. Elimination of paper correspondence is the next step in the modernization, and this change will further help streamline and provide better services for all involved.

For this reason, any paper correspondence to the NVC that is postmarked June 1, 2020, or later, will not receive a response. Paper correspondence that is postmarked before June 1, 2020, will still be responded to.
Beginning on June 1, 2020, applicants will need to submit all inquiries through the NVC’s Public Inquiry Forum at http://nvc.state.gov/inquiry. This online forum is already available for customers. Applicants should never submit repeat inquiries through the Public Inquiry Forum, doing so may delay the NVC’s ability to respond.

The NVC advises that after June 1, 2020, applicants should only send mail to the National Visa Center if they are explicitly instructed to do so through email, telephone call, or letter from the National Visa Center. The NVC will provide applicants with a mailing address in the event it solicits mail. The DOS cautions applicants to never send original documents to the NVC.

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