<p><strong>New Delhi:&nbsp;</strong></p>
<div>
<p>&ldquo;Emergency appointments are available within days for applicants who meet the criteria. We are committed to reducing wait times as quickly as possible.&rdquo;</p>
<p id="2">A senior official at the US embassy in Delhi recently spelled out the steps taken to expedite visa processing in India: making more applicants eligible for interview waiver, sending drop-box cases abroad for adjudication, and getting temporary staffers. While visa applications are almost back to pre-Covid numbers, staffing at US missions in India to process them are likely to get back to that level in about nine months or late summer next year.</p>
<p id="3">Asked what applicants facing almost 1,000-day interview wait time in India should do, the official had said: &ldquo;They should keep applying. Once the line starts moving and wait time drops, they can advance their interview date without any fees.&rdquo; Given the massive volume of visa applications across categories like students, B1/B2, skilled workers (H), and crew in India&mdash;the only country with that demand size as of now, as China is yet to open up fully&mdash; the US is prioritising visa categories. While students get top priority in the admission season, next on the list is expediting drop-box cases for skilled workers, repeat B1/B2 visa seekers (whose visas expired within four years of application, which now makes them eligible for interview waiver), and crew. It could possibly be several months before the interview wait time for B1/B2 starts dropping in India.</p>
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<p id="2">In a November 17 statement titled &ldquo;addressing US visitor visa wait times&rdquo;, the US state department said: &ldquo;.... 96% of our embassies and consulates can provide routine visa services. The combination of pent-up demand from past two years combined with regular seasonal demand has resulted in extended wait times for US visa interview appointments in some locations&mdash;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.&rdquo;</p>
<p id="3">The statement added: &ldquo;We have exceeded pre-pandemic levels of processing in key categories that support the US economy. We issued more student visas in FY 2022 than in any year since FY 2016.&rdquo;</p>
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Wait for US visa interview unlikely to get shorter soon

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