Unitedstatesvisas.gov Website to be Retired - Redesign of travel.state.gov Visa Main Webpage

R 130109Z MAR 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO ALL DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI 6166 BT
UNCLAS STATE 023834

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: CVIS, CMGT, KPAO, AMGT
SUBJECT: UNITEDSTATESVISAS.GOV WEBSITE TO BE RETIRED - REDESIGN OF TRAVEL.STATE.GOV VISA MAIN WEBPAGE

1. The Unitedstatesvisas.gov (Destination USA) portal website will be decommissioned on March 16, 2009. This is an action cable. See paragraph 4.

2. Selected content from Unitedstatesvisas.gov, including Visa News, What is a Visa, and U.S. Visa Policy webpages, has been updated and will move to the Travel.state.gov (TSG) website. Redirects for the web URLs will be in place to minimize invalid web links resulting from this change.

3. Concurrently, a redesigned TSG visa main page will be launched, through the efforts of VO and CST, providing a more user-friendly and visually appealing main visa webpage. By making these changes, information will be clearer to our web users through a consolidated official consular source of visa information.

4. ACTION REQUESTED: Many post websites, as well as other websites, have accumulated links and references to either Destination USA or Unitedstatesvisas.gov on their webpages. -- Post websites: Posts are requested to review their sites and remove all links and references to these websites. Post websites should continue to link to visa content at http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_1750.html . We appreciate posts' ongoing attention to their websites, which are fundamentally important to the traveling public. -- Other Department websites: Webmasters for other Department websites are requested to review their sites and change links from Unitedstatesvisas.gov or Destination USA to http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_1750.html.

CLINTON