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U.S. Embassy in Moscow Resumes Issuing Visas

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has resumed issuing visas.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has resumed issuing visas after a disruption in July due to "technical difficulties," the embassy said Thursday.

"The problem that had led to delays in issuing visas all over the world has been resolved, and our consulate department has processed all applications that built up over that time," an embassy representative told Russian state news service RIA Novosti.

The source was also cited as saying he hoped more Russian citizens would apply for visas in the future.

A statement on the U.S. Embassy's website said that the visa department had not caught up completely after the disruption but had managed to issue "a significant portion of non-immigration visas, the process of which had been delayed due to technical difficulties."

The problem with visas first began in late July, when diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Russia were plummeting amid the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine and sanctions imposed against Russia by the U.S. and the European Union.

Despite speculation at that time that the visa delays were tied to international tensions, the U.S. State Department stressed that in addition to the embassy in Moscow, embassies in Kazakhstan and China had experienced the difficulty as well.

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