US visa appointments test patience of Indians; Chennai has longest wait time [details]

US visa appointments haven't been easy to get. Those who are eagerly waiting to apply truly know the struggle of having to wait for months, sometimes nearly two years. The United States says it has been trying to cut visa delays for several months now, but it's nowhere close to the convenience of applicants. The situation in most of its consulates in India may be improved slightly, but Chennai is still catching up.

US visa appointments in Chennai take nearly 700 days, more than double of Delhi and Hyderabad, both of which are around 250 days. Similarly, Mumbai and Kolkata have wait times of around 350 days — that's nearly a year. This is the case for those applying for their B1/B2 visa appointments.

For the shortest wait time, applicants must opt for US Embassy at New Delhi for their tourist and business visa appointments, which is 247 days.

In the case of F-1 student visas, the wait time is usually around two months. In Kolkata, the wait time is 78 days, 73 days in Mumbai, 74 days in Delhi and Chennai has the shortest wait time of 58 days.

The delays were caused by the closure of the consular operations for more than a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. All US operations were impacted around the world. But the situation in India was the worst of all because of the sheer volume of visa applications that the US receives from Indians for all categories -- from B1/B2 tourist visas to H-1B and L work visas to others.

What is the US doing about it?

Long waiting times for US visa processing post-pandemic, especially for first-time visitors, have become a key issue in the bilateral relationship and it was raised by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar at the last 2+2 meeting between the two countries' Foreign and Defence Ministers in Washington D.C. last September. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had assured him then that the US had a plan to address the issue.

"It is the number one priority that we're facing right now," said Julie Stufft, the senior official of the State Department's consular operations, told reporters while referring to the extraordinary delays in the processing of US visas in India. "We are absolutely committed to getting us out of the situation where people -- anyone in India -- seeking a visa appointment or a visa would have to wait a lengthy time at all. That's certainly not our ideal."

Delays in most of these categories have been addressed to a large extent the officials said because of interview waivers for repeat visitors. Their applications are processed remotely at US missions around the world. Indians are also being encouraged to apply for visas at US missions in other countries, the officials said, who acknowledged this was far from an ideal situation. More than 100 US missions around the world have processed Indian applications.

(Additional agency inputs included)