Emergency Appointment Requests

The Embassy no longer allows applicants to appear in person to request an emergency appointment.  Instead, applicants need to apply for an emergency appointment via email.  The Embassy cannot accomodate emergency appointment requests via fax, letter mail, or telephone. 

All applicants requesting an emergency appointment must first fill out an electronic visa application form and schedule a regular appointment online, even if that regular appointment date is not early enough to accomodate their planned travel.  Applicants who believe they qualify for an emergency appointment must then e-mail the Visa Unit at: kingstonvisas@state.gov.  The email must contain the following information:

• Applicant’s Name
• Applicant’s Date of Birth
• Applicant’s Phone Number
• Applicant’s reason for requesting an emergency appointment
• Applicant’s scheduled appointment date and time

All applications for an emergency appointment will be reviewed within 5 working days from the day they are received and the applicant will be informed whether they have been given an emergency appointment.  If you do not receive a response after 5 working days, plan to keep your existing appointment date.  The Embassy’s guidelines are very specific regarding what constitutes an emergency.  These reasons are:

• Illness or death of an immediate family member (immediate family members are the applicant’s mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, son, and/or daughter).
• Emergency medical treatment which includes any persons needing to travel for support (such as a parent caring for an ill child).
• Student or exchange visitors needing to report to school/programs on short notice.
• Short-notice business travel:  Please provide a detailed description of the nature of your business in the United States, why it is necessary that you make the trip on an urgent timeframe, and an explanation of why you were unable to anticipate the travel and schedule a timely appointment.

If you are granted an emergency appointment under the above guidelines, you will be given additional information on what to bring to your interview and the date and time of your emergency appointment.  The kingstonvisas@state.gov e-mail is for emergency appointment requests only.  Other inquiries will not be answered, and should be direct to consularkingst@state.gov.