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On Monday, January 2, 2006, the Embassy of the United States of America will introduce changes to the official Visa Information Service to further enhance the process. This service, based on similar models operating today in more than 20 countries across Europe and Latin America, provides timely and accurate information to the public regarding how to apply for a visa to enter the United States of America. Callers are able to access information on both nonimmigrant and immigrant visas to the US and all the information an applicant is required to have in order to apply for a visa. The Visa Information Service schedules all appointments for non-immigrant visa interviews.
The Visa Information Service is introducing a new credit card payment service, which will allow applicants from outside Germany to obtain visa information from the call center by using their MasterCard or Visa credit cards. The service can be accessed by calling +49 (0)9131 772 2270. Calls cost 15.00 Euro per transaction and are paid by credit card. It will be especially useful to those callers who previously could not access the service via the pay per minute service. It now will allow callers from the US to access the Visa Information Service directly. This service is only available in English.
Due to a change in legislation, the 0190 numbers cannot be used anymore.
The new numbers will be:
0900 1-850055 with 1.86 Euro per minute for the Live Service presented by defacto call center and ARCOR
0900 1-850058 with 1.86 Euro per minute for the Fax on Demand Service presented by defacto call center and ARCOR
The 0900 numbers can only be accessed from inside Germany.
All callers will continue to access the Visa Information Service through operators who can answer questions on how to apply for a visa, provide information on the required documents, and schedule interview appointments, as required. The service is available to the public from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday – Friday except on German national holidays.
The U.S. Visa Information Service is provided to the public on behalf of the U.S. Embassy by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC).
The U.S. Embassy in Berlin and the Consulate General in Frankfurt are pleased to announce this new process to better meet the needs of all visa applicants in Germany. The Embassy strongly urges all individuals to apply for their visa a minimum of one month in advance of planned travel.
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