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New Delhi: The wait time to get an appointment in India for an interview to get a visa to travel to the United States has reached nearly 1,000 days. However, there are two categories of visitors that may be able to get an appointment in less than a week in Hyderabad and Chennai, according to the latest data on the US Department of State- Bureau of Consular Affairs website on Tuesday.
The estimated wait time for B1/B2 categories is the highest ranging between 440 days in Kolkata to 999 days in Mumbai. These are nonimmigrant visas for people who want to enter the US temporarily for business (visa category B1), for tourism (visa category B2), or for a combination of both purposes.
Meanwhile, interview waiver visitors in the B1/B2 categories may be able to get a visa interview appointment in six days in Chennai, as per latest data. On the other hand, interview required as well as interview waiver crew and transit visitors i.e. those in the C, D, C1/D categories will only have to wait a day to get an appointment.
Those awaiting US student visa appointments and exchange visitors are currently witnessing a wait time of anywhere between 64 days in Chennai to 325 days in Hyderabad.
Earlier in a press briefing on December 8, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the Joe Biden administration is aware of the issues. “We are still working to respond to the significant demand of these visa services…We are successfully lowering visa interview wait times — that’s around the world,” she said.
Pierre added that the administration has doubled its hiring of US foreign service personnel to do this “important” work. Visa processing is recovering faster than projected and the US expects to reach pre-pandemic processing levels.
On January 5, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the US issued more student visas in fiscal year 2022 than in any year since 2016 and added that its embassy and consulates in India in particular broke their all-time record for the number of student visas issued in a single fiscal year.
“We issued nearly 1,25,000 student visas. We recognise that some applicants may still face extended visa wait times, and we’re making every effort to further reduce visa interview appointment wait times as quickly as possible in India and around the world, including for first time tourist visa applicants,” he said.
To address the growing backlog, the US has also made more applicants eligible for interview waiver, sending drop box cases abroad for adjudication and getting temporary staffers.
Meanwhile, in its latest tweet this morning, the Bureau of Consular Affairs said it is working hard to welcome tourists who need visas, while also protecting national security. “In FY 2022, the 10 largest visa-processing embassies and consulates issued 90 percent of their 2019 visa volume and expect to exceed that in 2023,” it noted.
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