In July, US embassies in Mexico expanded the Department of States program to waive the nonimmigrant visa interview requirement to allow persons to obtain a new visa without scheduling a consular interview if they are applying for same visa within 48 months of their prior visa’s expiration date.  Previously, the visa interview waiver was only available to persons whose valid visas had expired within 12 months of the date of reapplication. The visa interview waiver program was initiated in January on an embassy-by-embassy basis to facilitate international travel to the U.S. by frequent business travelers and tourists. Currently, the program is in effect in only a limited number of countries.