In July 2014, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) issued a notice stating that the U.S. Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) at the State Bureau of Consular Affairs was experiencing technical problems with its passport/visa system. As a result, hundreds of thousands of individuals awaiting the issuance of new passports or visas from U.S. Consulates abroad have been impacted, leading to delays in travel plans to the U.S. A spokesman for the DOS indicated that the root of the problem was software optimization and hardware compatibility issues, and that their IT team has been working to bring the CCD back to full operational capacity. The DOS is currently prioritizing immigrant visas, adoption cases, and emergency non-immigrant visa cases, and is advising visa applicants that they might experience delays of up to one week in addition to normal processing times.
