Consular Visa/Passport System Crashes

According to reports, the Department of State’s Consular Consolidated Database (CCD), used to print and approve visas and passports, has been having significant problems, including outages, since July 19, 2014. The CCD is back up and running in a limited capacity, the Department said, but the Bureau of Consular Affairs is still working through the resulting backlogs. The problems are worldwide and not confined to any particular category.

Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson, said, “We apologize to applicants and recognize this may cause hardship to applicants waiting on visas and passports.” The database is one of the largest in the world with 100 million visa case records.

At a press briefing on July 24, Ms. Hart noted, “We do not believe there was any malicious action or anything untoward here. This was a technical issue, and again, we are working to correct it and should be fully operational again soon. We’re operating at a little bit of limited capacity right now, though, so we’re trying not to overload the system.”