New Delhi: The US Embassy and American Consulate Generals in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata today (June 22, 2004) decided to end the "drop box" facility for submitting visa applications following the move to collect fingerprint impressions of visa applicants from July.

This change in the visa application process will affect only the limited number of persons currently not required to appear in person for a visa appointment, the American Embassy said here.

It said the reason for ending the drop-box facility is that beginning next month, US consular sections in India will start collecting fingerprint impressions from all visa applicants, except those travelling on official Government business or who are under 14 or over 79 years.

At the time of the visa interview, applicants will be asked to electronically scan the index (second) finger of each hand.

The scanned fingerprint data collected at the time of visa application will be compared with fingerprint scans at the US port of entry to prevent the use of US visas by imposters and by those wanted for more serious offences.

This is a worldwide programme and has already been implemented in more than 150 American consular sections around the world, the release said.

"This programme is not targeted at any country or region," it said, adding US visa offices in Frankfurt, Brussels, San Salvador and Guatemala were the first posts to begin this programme in September last year.