The US Embassy in Skopje stated that passports and their visa service, as well as urgent cases for US citizens, will continue operate despite the government shutdown.
Scheduled passport and visas services, and emergency services for U.S. citizens, will continue at the Embassy during the U.S. government shutdown. We will not be updating this account regularly, except in the event of an emergency.
— US Embassy Macedonia (@usembassymkd) January 20, 2018
The government shutdown came into force at midnight, following a failed attempt by Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to reach a compromise on the budget. Tonight, senators did not pass the law to continue government funding by February 16th. To pass the bill, it took 60 votes out of 100, but only 50 supported it.
The occurrence of a government shutdowns are unusual, but it has happened before. Since 1981, there have been 12 such cases, and shutdowns have varied concerning the length of time.
