Planning To Travel To US? Be Ready For Long Wait as Visas Interview Queues Climb To Nearly 3 Years

Need to travel to the United States anytime soon? Well, then be ready for a long wait. The waiting time for first-time applicants of– B-1 (business) and B-2 (and tourist)– visas in India has gone up to almost three years.

The queue for US visas for Indians has been exceptionally long since the country resumed application processing post-pandemic.

As of Tuesday, the waiting period for B1/B2 applicants requiring an interview stood at 999 days in Mumbai; 994 days in Hyderabad; 961 days in Delhi; 948 in Chennai and 904 in Kolkata, according to the US State Department’s website.

This means that now first-time visitor visa applicants in India and the ones who do not qualify for a drop box application (interview waiver), will have to wait for nearly three years to get their maiden US visa. In fact, first-time B1/B2 applicants may have to wait till late 2025 for just an interview date.

“As of November 2022, the global median wait time for a tourist visa (B1/B2) interview appointment is under two months. Emergency appointments are available within days for applicants who meet the criteria. We are committed to reducing wait times as quickly as possible,” the US State Department tweeted on Tuesday.

Notably, in the past two months, the US has taken numerous steps to reduce the waiting period for Indians. But, given the huge backlog due to the pandemic travel ban and the huge number of applications from the county, it is expected to take several months before the interview appointment wait period falls.

Recently, a senior official from the US Embassy in Delhi said that to expedite visa processing in India, the country is making more applicants eligible for interview waivers, along with sending dropbox cases abroad for adjudication and getting temporary staffers, according to a report by Economic Times.

As per the report, while visa applications are almost back to pre-Covid numbers, staffing at US missions in India to process the same are likely to get back to that level only by late next summer.

The official advised that applicants facing almost 1,000 days of interview wait time in India should keep applying. “Once the line starts moving and wait time drops, they can advance their interview date without any fees,” they said.

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