An Indian student with an F-1 visa is facing a frustrating glitch that’s now threatening his status in the US despite living there legally.
Taking to social media, the student shared that he paid his visa appointment fee on May 15, 2024. Since the fee is valid for one year, it should be good till May 15, 2025. But when he tried to schedule the appointment, the portal simply responded as if the payment never happened.
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No option to continue. No way to use the already-paid receipt. Just a fresh demand for more money.
What might have triggered this mess? By his own admission, he clicked “Close application and start new application” — something many applicants do when the portal glitches.
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The site even warned him but also assured that the existing receipt would still work. Turns out, it didn’t. The payment disappeared from the system.
Desperate, he emailed the US Visa Scheduling team with the receipt attached and got no response. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, especially for Indian students racing to secure their visas before the Fall semester.
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And he’s not alone. Others on social media have reported similar issues. One user even suggested going ahead, claiming the system would eventually fix itself without asking for the same details twice.
But at the end of the day, students shouldn’t have to gamble with their money or timelines like this. Maybe it’s time the US government spends less on making life difficult for international students and more on fixing its broken portals.
