New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) The US Embassy in India on Wednesday assured applicants that passports and visa services will continue despite the government shut down underway in Washington.  In a statement shared on social media platform X, the US Embassy in India stated, "At this time, scheduled passport and visa services in the United States and at US Embassies and Consulates overseas will continue during the lapse in appropriations as the situation permits. We will not update this account until full operations resume, with the exception of urgent safety and security information. For information on our services and operating status, visit http://travel.state.gov."

The Embassy's statement comes as the US government has shut down since lawmakers failed to achieve a breakthrough on a funding bill. As a consequence, the funding for US government departments will be cut and will bring a several federal services to a halt. On Tuesday, Democrats blocked Republicans' plans to pass the spending bill in the Senate. Democratic leaders met US President Donald Trump on Monday but failed to come to an agreement. Hours after the meeting, Trump shared an AI-generated video on Truth Social, mocking House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Trump on Tuesday continued to blame Democrats, saying that he "didn't see them bend even a little bit." He also threatened to fire more federal workers during the shutdown. "When you shut it down, you have to do layoffs, we'd be laying off a lot of people," Trump said. Democrats have demanded to reverse the healthcare cuts in the "Big Beautiful Bill," which was passed earlier this year. Republicans have stressed they would not agree to Democrats' demands and had proposed to extend funding until November 21.

While the Republicans control both the Senate and the House of Representatives, they are seven votes short in the Senate as the funding bill requires 60 votes to pass. It is the first US government shutdown in seven years, as the last one happened under Trump 1.0 and lasted for 35 days the longest in history. Essential services such as border protection, law enforcement and air-traffic control would continue to function while food assistance programmes, government-funded pre-school, food inspectors and operations at national parks could be adversely affected.