The United States Embassy in St. Andrew says it is investigating the attempted manipulation of its online non-immigrant visa appointment system.

In a statement yesterday, the embassy said it was also warning the Jamaican public to avoid dealing with persons offering to procure early visa appointments.

"All applicants for U.S. visitor visas are required to give their full name, passport number and Paymaster receipt number to reserve a visa appointment," the embassy said. "A growing number of appointments made on the embassy's online system contain fictitious information and have been made simply to hold a place in our interview schedule."

Fictitious appointments

The embassy added: "These fictitious appointments cause problems for everyone, especially by adding to the waiting time for legitimate travellers from Jamaica to secure a timely appointment."

The embassy said persons found to be tampering with the appointment database and/or filing fraudulent appointments will be reported to the Jamaican authorities for possible criminal prosecution.

Also, according to the statement, persons entering the U.S. Embassy with falsified appointment letters will be denied visas and may be subject to permanent visa ineligibility.

All applicants or honest, reliable persons acting on their behalf should schedule visa appointments online at: https://evisaforms.state.gov/default. asp?postcode=KNG&appcode=3

This is an electronic calendar that will show available dates and times.

Applicants should avoid people or businesses that claim to be able to schedule expedited appointments. There is no charge for scheduling visa interview appointments (including emergency appointments) on the embassy's electronic calendar.

If you believe that a travel agent or individual is providing questionable services, please inform the embassy at kingstonvisas@state.gov so that we can act to prevent other applicants from being charged high fees for fraudulent services.

The embassy is also urging applicants who change their appointments to remember to delete their previous dates to allow the other slots to be made available for other applicants.

Any individual who reserves more than one date at the same time invites having one or both of the appointments deleted.