After you apply for a US Visa and have it approved, the consulate will glue the US visa foil on your passport. The US Visa foil has many sections, including annotations, as described in the article US Visa fields meaning. Sometimes, you may see text that says “See CCD” or “IV Docs in CCD”. It can be confusing if you do not know what that means. In this article, we will clarify the meaning, what you need to be aware of and prepared for.
What is CCD on US Visa ?
CCD stands for Consular Consolidated Database. It is a system that is used by US Consular officers, CBP officers, and other personnel of the US State Department. It is also the system that is used by DHS, FBI, Dept of Defense, and other federal agencies for validating passport and visa information. All the US visa applications related biographic data, biometric checks, and other security information is replicated and stored centrally in the CCD system.
CCD is used by internal and external agencies, systems for various purposes. Below are some of the common purposes
- Checking fingerprints of US visa applicants
- Registration of Facial recognition
- Automated screening of US visa applications by Consular officers
- Track US visa applicant’s data, additional information
- Data distribution for applicants vetting
US Visa annotation “IV Docs in CCD” meaning ?
You would see “IV Docs in CCD” annotation for the Immigrant Visa category. IV means “Immigrant Visa”. The annotation means that the “Immigrant Visa documents are in Consular Consolidated Database”. It is a note for the US CBP officer at the Port of entry. Below is a sample of how it looks.
In general, if your immigrant visa (Green Card) is approved at US Consulate, you may receive a packet from the consulate along with your passport. The packet would have a note that says “do not open the sealed visa packed” and carry it to give it to the immigration officer at US Port of entry. Now, with the digitized system, there may not be a need to carry the sealed packet to CBP officer. The note “IV Docs in CCD” tells the CBP officer at the Port of entry to check the Consular Consolidate Database for the relevant Immigrant visa-related documents. This is just a note telling to CBP officer that the applicant’s documents are digitized and the user is not carrying any physical packet with documents.
If you have this annotation, nothing to worry about. All you need to do is carry all the relevant documents that you took to the US consulate for getting an immigrant visa to the US Port of entry. You will go through US Port of Entry Procedures and you may need to show some of these documents as needed. Also, read after visa interview on USembassy.gov
US Visa annotation “See CCD” meaning ?
Sometimes, you may see an annotation that says “See CCD”. It is a note to the US CBP Officer at US Port of Entry to check the Consular Consolidated Database(CCD) System. Anyone can get this, like B1 Visa, H4 Visa, etc. Below is an example with annotation for H4 Visa.
The note is just an indication to CBP officer to check the CCD system. It could be anything, they do not disclose that information. It does not mean you will have any issue at Port of entry. If in any case, you are taken to Secondary inspection or screening, the CBP officer can look at the CCD system for getting full information.
If you get the annotation “See CCD” on your US Visa, make sure you carry all your relevant documents that you took to the US visa stamping. It could be supporting documents, your company documents, your spouse visa documents, finance documents, etc. The CBP officer as needed may verify them. Also, your responses should be consistent with what you said in US visa stamping. If anything different, you may have additional scrutiny.
You may read additional information on PIMS and CCD on State.gov Manual