The U.S. Department of State is back in the business of issuing visas after a computer system failure abruptly stopped work at consulates worldwide and inconvenienced hundreds of thousands of travelers.

The failure of an unidentified piece of hardware involved in biometric processing brought the entire Consular Consolidated Database system to a halt.

The system is responsible for processing and issuing an estimated 50,000 U.S. visas per day. Applications made after May 26 were affected.

“The database has been rebuilt and is being tested,” said John Kirby, State Department spokesman, at a briefing on Tuesday.

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