Indians waiting to visit the United States across the country are baffled due to long wait times for visa and consular appointments. Students, people who have families working or living in the US and travelers from India may even have to wait up to 2024 for an appointment.
The wait times are also being attributed to the shortage of staff which was caused due to the pandemic by the American authorities.
Upon checking the US Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs website, the long wait time for a nonimmigrant visa interview appointment at a US Embassy or Consulate could be confirmed.
Here are screenshots from the website for the US consulates in these mega cities:
The wait time at the US Embassy in New Delhi for a Visitor Visa is 833 days which means it could take 2 years and 3 months (as per the date of writing this news story) for visas under this category to be issued. This means a person applying for a visitor visa is likely to get an appointment in January 2025.
A student/exchange Visitor visa will take at least 430 days or 14 months to be issued. This means that if a person chooses to apply today the interview is likely to be scheduled by December 2023.
The other types of non-immigrant visas will take 390 days which means an applicant will have their interview scheduled in October 2023.
This visa issue with India is an absurdity. Imagine going to get a tourist visa in New Delhi and being told the next available appointment is in 2025. Unacceptable. We need to do better.— Jeff M. Smith (@Cold_Peace_) September 27, 2022
The waiting period for interview appointments are similar or higher for US Consulates in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai.
Applicants for visitor visas from these four mega cities will have to wait at least 750-800 days (which is more than two years).
However, the waiting period for student visa applicants at the US Consulate in Chennai is 29 days.
Blinken, Jaishankar Discuss Backlog
The issue was also discussed on Monday when S Jaishankar and Antony Blinken met in Washington. When the backlog of visa applications from India was raised by the external affairs minister, his counterpart said the US is sensitive to the issue.
“It is also in our mutual interest to facilitate the development and mobility of talent. We agreed that impediments over this should be addressed,” Jaishankar said.
“Bear with us. This will play out over the next few months, but we’re very focused on it,” Blinken said. “We are now building back very determinedly from that surging resource. We have a plan, when it comes to India, to address the backlog of visas that has built up,” he assured.
Reduced Wait Times for Pakistan, China
The wait times for visa applicants living in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are significantly shorter compared to Indian mega cities.
Here are the screenshots for wait times across US Embassies in these Chinese cities:
The wait times could also be shorter in China due to lack of demand, growing animosity between both nations and China’s Covid Zero but the significant difference in waiting times is worth mentioning.
The waiting time for visas is also shorter for Islamabad and Karachi compared to Indian cities. Only Bangladesh had a large backlog for visitor visas as applicants in Dhaka may have to wait longer than 500 days for an appointment.
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