Some tips and information on new visa appointment system

[whiteknight]

Hi,

Just wanted to share some information from my personal experience. I don't want to claim that this is the best available information but I do feel that it will be helpful on some issues.

- It seems that the new system shows available dates for next 1-3 months unlike previous system which only released dates 10-15 days in advance.

- You can book appointments over phone but you would have same options as you see online.

- There are total 3 times you can book an appointment in other words you can cancel only twice.

- Once you book an appointment you can not see any available dates for rescheduling till you cancel your existing appointment. There is no use calling call center because the call center staff also have access to same information that you have online.

- Within a day (24 hrs) you can watch the appointment page only for certain no of times. Once you cross that limit page no longer refreshes and you need to wait till next day.

If you don't see any appointment (anywhere) in the dates as per your travel plans (this is happening with many people especially in November) your options are

1 - Book an appointment tentatively with minimal changes to your schedule (say change return flight). Keep following forums and if you see people posting about dates availability then cancel your appointment and reschedule. Risk is that by the time you cancel the available dates could be gone.

2- Keep on looking till you find the date you want. It may not be in choice of your consulate but at least you won't have to change your travel plans. Also make sure you don't exhaust your daily limit on checking availability.

Good luck.

[eurotravel]

Do you know if we can take OFC and Consular appointment in different cities. The system certainly allows it but would I be questioned at consular that why did you take in different citites or may be they dont have information about my OFC appointment? any idea.. thanks

[mumbai_h1_dates]

Really good information and analysis for everyone to read.

[dvs]

Great info ! Thanks !

[tprabhaker]

Really good information and analysis for everyone to read.

Yes you can book OFC appointment at one location and VISA appointment at different location, this is what i got the information from VFS customer service.

[scr126]

Good info but a little clarification. I think you can book 4 times with 3 cancellations. After 4th cancellation, the receipt number will be void and you have to pay again to get a new receipt number. This is what happened to me. Obviously the inability to see available dates prior to cancellation/ rescheduling does not make any sense and its what causing all these problems. One more thing, you cannot use Bank of America to pay the fee even though it shows Bank of America name under online payment section. You have to use only bank in India as was told to me by the costumer support service.

[airking]

You DONT pay through bank of america, you pay TO bank of america. BOA is the recipient. You can use any Indian bank that offers NEFT to make the payment.