State Department Global Database Crash

State Department’s Global Database Crashes, Potentially Delaying Issuance of Millions of U.S. Travel Documents

Individuals with pending applications for U.S. travel documents, such as visas and passports, should expect major delays as a result of a system malfunction.  It was recently announced that the U.S. State Department’s global database for issuing travel documents has crashed, potentially affecting millions of people worldwide.

Spokeswoman Marie Harf announced that the State Department’s  Consular Consolidated Database has been experiencing glitches since Saturday, August 26th, which are causing “significant performance issues, including outages” in the processing of applications for passports, visas, and reports of Americans born abroad.  She further noted that these issues are not specific to any particular country, document, or visa category and are occurring across the globe.  Because of this, the database is experiencing an “extensive backlog” of applications, which is also affecting the ability to fully restore the system.

In light of the database outage, individuals planning international travel should account for additional time in the processing and issuance of U.S. travel documents and plan their travel accordingly.  EIG is closely monitoring the situation and will provide further updates as they become available.