Affected applicants will receive instructions via email on how to reschedule their appointment, the embassy says in a post on X
Police stand guard outside the US consulate in Karachi. Photo: archive
The US Embassy in Islamabad extended the suspension of its visa services until March 20, canceling all scheduled visa appointments while continuing to provide “routine and emergency services” to US citizens.
“All immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments are canceled through March 20. Affected visa applicants will receive instructions via email on how to reschedule their appointments,” he said in a post on X.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad continues to serve U.S. citizens requiring routine and emergency services.
All immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments are canceled until March 20. Affected visa applicants will receive instructions via email on how to reschedule their… pic.twitter.com/ocKQQ1un04— US Embassy Islamabad (@usembislamabad) March 13, 2026
Additionally, all consular services at the U.S. Consulates General in Karachi and Lahore remain suspended.
This suspension comes as the US-Israel war against Iran approaches its second week, with more than 2,000 people dead, most in Iran from joint US-Israeli attacks. Nearly 700 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where Israel has attacked central Beirut and ordered residents to leave a swath of southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army warned on Friday that it would attack two areas of the Iranian capital, Tehran, Villa and Moniriyeh, and asked residents to evacuate.
Read: Police and protesters clash in Karachi after Iran’s Khamenei was killed in US-Israel attack
“In the next few hours, the IDF will operate in these areas, as they have done in recent days throughout Iran, to attack military infrastructure belonging to the Iranian regime. Dear citizens, for your safety and well-being, we ask you to immediately evacuate the marked area,” the army published on its Persian-language account on X, attaching maps of the affected neighborhoods.
Earlier on Thursday, Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first comments, read by a television host, vowing to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and calling on neighboring countries to close U.S. bases on their territory or risk being attacked by Iran.
“I assure everyone that we will not neglect avenging the blood of your martyrs,” he said. Iranian officials have said he was slightly wounded in the initial attacks.
The leaders of Iran, Israel and the United States expressed defiance and vowed to keep fighting as the war in the Middle East approached two weeks on Friday, killing thousands of people, disrupting the lives of millions and shaking financial markets.
