March 20, 2003 - Visa services have been suspended at a number of U.S. Embassies and Consulates worldwide, due to the war in Iraq. Per the list below, garnered from statements made by the U.S. Department of State, many embassies/consulates have either closed or been limited to emergency services.

Berry, Appleman and Leiden advises that all nonimmigrants, especially those in need of visas, consider postponing or canceling nonessential international travel plans during this time of crisis. If travel must be undertaken, we recommend personally reviewing the travel warnings (http://travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html) and local U.S. embassy conditions in the destination country (http://usembassy.state.gov/) to ascertain the current U.S. consulate conditions. The list below is illustrative, but is no substitute for personal confirmation via these sources. New closures can occur at any time as U.S. ambassadors may base decisions on the local security situation.

The list of affected consulates is:

Afghanistan: Kabul is closed
Argentina: Buenos Aires is closed.
Australia: Canberra and all consular posts are closed
Brazil: Sao Paolo issuing emergency visas only; reduced services
Egypt: Cairo is closed
France: Paris issuing emergency visas only; other posts closed
Indonesia: Surabaya is closed
Israel: Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are closed
Jordan: Amman is closed
Kazakhstan: Alamaty is closed
Kenya: Nairobi is closed
Macedonia: Skopje is closed
Nigeria: Lagos is closed; Abuja is running on reduced operations
Norway: Oslo is closed
Pakistan: all posts are closed
Romania: Bucharest is closed
Saudi Arabia: Riyadh is closed
South Africa: all posts are closed
Syria: Damascus is closed
Turkey: Istanbul is closed; other posts currently open with reduced services
Venezuela: Caracas is closed
Yemen: Sanaa is closed