Wait for US visa interview nears 1,000 days: Is it going to get better anytime soon?

On Tuesday, the US state department said “the global median wait time for a tourist visa (B1/B2) interview appointment is under two months as of this month.” That fact, plus the US embassy saying India is a ‘top priority’ and that it wants to issue around 1.2 million visas by next summer, might have led many to think that the wait for a visa is going down. Unfortunately, the opposite is happening – the wait for business and travel visa from India is now nearing 1,000 days. Earlier in November, an official of the US embassy said the wait time for B1, B2 (business and tourism) visas is being brought down from around nine months. Let’s take a closer look: What’s the current situation? According to the state department, the current waiting period for B1/B2 applicants requiring an interview stands at 999 days in Mumbai, 994 days in Hyderabad, 961 days in Delhi, 948 in Chennai and 904 in Kolkata.

It is important to note that even these are estimates and not a  guarantee of an appointment.

“The estimated wait time to receive an interview appointment at a US Embassy or Consulate can change weekly and is based on actual incoming workload and staffing.” India has been one of the very few countries where applications for US visas saw a major upswing after coronavirus-related travel restrictions were lifted. What is the US doing? Washington is undertaking a series of initiatives including hiring more personnel and increasing ‘drop box’ facilities. The official, speaking to Indian Express, said the ‘drop box’ facilities will be expanded across several visa categories including student visas, business and tourist visas, and skilled workers visas.

The process used to apply for renewal of a US visa without the visa interview is known as the drop box facility.

The official added that in case a person has already obtained a visa in a certain category, she/he now becomes eligible for interview waiver, and can thus use the drop box facility. This move — subject to fulfillment of certain conditions — will significantly bring down waiting time for US visas in days to come, the official added. Broadly, the applicants having a US visa within a span of the last four years are eligible for drop box facility. The official said priority is also being accorded to cut the waiting time for the students’ visas, especially for those looking for renewal of their visas. Though students who have in the past travelled to the United States on tourist visas can also seek an interview waiver, they may be called for biometrics in case it wasn’t done earlier, the official said further said. “Opening the 100,000 additional slots for H and L visas cut the wait time, which was more than a year earlier, to about half. The wait time for those using the drop box for B-1 and B-2 visas continues to be several months. We will see progress over the next nine months,” the official told Hindustan Times. The official added drop boxes were also being sent elsewhere for processing. The official told the Hindustan Times reducing wait time for non-immigrant work visas such as H and L categories will be a priority. The US will initially focus “aggressively” on applicants in these categories using the “drop box” facility, or those who already were issued a US visa and are exempted from interviews, before taking up the case of first-time applicants, the official added. The official further said Washington is attempting to expedite the process is for crew visas used by airline and cruise staff, as per Indian Express. Washington has already identified H (H1B) and L category visas for Indians as its priority,  and released nearly 1,00,000 slots for those wanting to renew the visas.

The plan is to issue one lakh visas every month.

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What can we expect in the future? Things are expected to get better. The state department tweeted, “Emergency appointments are available within days for applicants who meet the criteria. We are committed to reducing wait times as quickly as possible.” Asked what those applying for a visa should do, a senior embassy official told The Times of India, “They should keep applying. Once the line starts moving and wait time drops, they can advance their interview date without any fees.” In a 17 November statement, the state department said it is committed to facilitating “legitimate travel” to the US while safeguarding national security. “Many applicants for US visas are required by law to appear in person. However, local pandemic-era restrictions on public places like our overseas consular sections curbed our ability to see visa applicants. This reduced the number of visa applications the Department could process. Now that most countries have lifted restrictions, 96% of our embassies and consulates can provide routine visa services. The combination of pent-up demand from the past two years combined with regular seasonal demand has resulted in extended wait times for US visa interview appointments in some locations – most notably for first-time visitor visa applicants and immigrant visa applicants in some countries.” “The Department of State is successfully lowering visa interview wait times worldwide. We have doubled our hiring of US Foreign Service personnel to do this important work, visa processing is rebounding faster than projected, and in fiscal year 2023 we expect to reach pre‑pandemic visa processing levels.” “We have exceeded pre-pandemic levels of processing in key visa categories that support the US economy.… We issued more student visas in FY 2022 than in any year since FY 2016. During the 2021-2022 academic year, international students contributed more than $32 billion to the US economy… We are processing more visas with fewer consular officers,” it added. “We have used innovative technological solutions to electronically redistribute non-immigrant visa workloads from overseas posts with high visa appointment wait times to other posts with additional capacity. Each day, for example, US consular officers in different parts of the world remotely adjudicate thousands of non-immigrant visa applications for applicants from countries with long interview wait times who do not require an interview. This has allowed our consular officers in those countries to focus on first-time and other visa applicants who do require an interview,” the statement read. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.