US Embassy To Introduce New Procedures for Tourist, Student and Other Non-Immigrant Visas

The American Embassy in the Lilongwe is implementing new procedures for applicants who wish to apply for tourist, student, or other non-immigrant visas to the United States.   Beginning November 1^st, 2006, applicants must complete the visa application form on the internet using the Electronic Visa Application Form, or EVAF. 

Electronic Visa Application Form (EVAF) - General Information

In September 2003, Consular Affairs introduced a web-based non-immigrant visa (NIV) application form that can be used in lieu of the DS-156 and DS-156 paper application form.  This form, called the Electronic Visa Application Form or EVAF, allows applicants to fill out the NIV application online, print it out, and bring it to the consular section or other data entry point.  The EVAF prints out with a barcode which consular sections can read in order to enter the applicant’s information into the State Department’s visa database.

• The EVAF process allows applicants to fill out their application from any internet-connected computer.  The format and the questions are identical to the paper version of the NIV application form.
• The EVAF makes the NIV application process more efficient.  It saves data entry time in the consular section, and reduces data entry errors. 
• The EVAF can be found at http://evisaforms.state.gov/, and is available in English, Spanish, Polish, Korean, Japanese, French, German, and Portuguese. 
• EVAF has been designed to keep your application data safe and secure.  Its security and privacy has been proven through millions of applications.

Worldwide use of EVAF

• Since the introduction of the Electronic Visa Application Form in September 2003, more and more posts have been making use of this time-saving tool.  In fact, just three years after the EVAF was introduced, very few posts are still doing on-site NIV data entry, and over 50 percent of all NIV applicants use the EVAF.  At 44 posts, over 80 percent of NIV applications are done through EVAF, in places from Tashkent to La Paz to Beijing, with posts as varied as Bern, Kingston, and Tokyo regularly topping the 90 percent mark. 
• Most other posts that do not use the EVAF outsource their data entry and download it through a remote data entry program.  Posts in India, Cuba, Senegal and others process over 95 percent of their applications this way.

Mandatory EVAF as of November 1, 2006

• As of November 1^st, all applicants worldwide who wish to apply for tourist, student, or other non-immigrant visas to the United States must complete the visa application form on the internet using the Electronic Visa Application Form, or EVAF.  Applicants who apply using a third-party contractor for remote data entry, and truly emergency cases, are exempt from this requirement.
• Beginning November 1^st, applications submitted with a handwritten or typewriter typed DS-156 visa application form can no longer be accepted.  Applicants who submit a handwritten or typewriter typed DS-156 application forms will be asked to complete and print out the new EVAF application form, which is available online at http://evisaforms.state.gov.  Visa application forms printed from the internet and then filled out will not be accepted.  The forms must be completed online and then printed.