US cancels visa appointments across Pakistan amid protests and security fears
Security personnel stand guard outside the US consulate in Karachi on March 1, 2026.PHOTO: AFP
The United States Embassy in Islamabad and the Consulates General in Lahore and Karachi have cancelled all visa appointments through Friday, March 6, amid the deteriorating security situation across Pakistan, the US Embassy announced on X on Tuesday.
Due to the current security situation, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and the Consulates General in Lahore and Karachi have cancelled all visa appointments through Friday, March 6.
The cancellations follow protests that erupted nationwide after Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was killed in a joint US-Israel strike this past weekend. According to an AFP tally released on Monday, the death toll from the protests reached at least 25.
The situation turned particularly volatile in Karachi on Sunday, when protesters breached the outer wall of the US consulate. Two US officials told reporters on Monday that US Marines opened fire on demonstrators during the storming – a rare use of force at a diplomatic post.
However, the officials cautioned that it remained unclear whether rounds fired by the Marines struck or killed anyone, and they did not know whether shots were also fired by others protecting the mission, including private security guards and local police.
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The latest cancellations are an extension of earlier disruptions. On March 2, the US had also cancelled all visa and American Citizen Services appointments at its embassy in Islamabad and consulates in Karachi and Lahore.
A day earlier, on March 1, the US mission in Pakistan issued a security alert saying it was monitoring ongoing demonstrations at the Lahore and Karachi consulates, as well as calls for further protests outside the embassy in Islamabad and the consulate in Peshawar. US government personnel were told to restrict their movements until further notice.
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Meanwhile, the broader US-Israel-Iran conflict shows no sign of abating. US CENTCOM said in a post on X that American forces have destroyed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities, air defences, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields.
Two drones also struck the US embassy in Riyadh early Tuesday, causing a small fire and minor material damage, according to Saudi officials. No injuries were reported, with the building understood to have been largely empty at the time. The US embassy subsequently issued shelter-in-place notifications for Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran, and restricted non-essential travel to military installations in the region.