Steps Taken By US Embassy To Reduce Visa Waiting Time.

An in-person interview appointment with a US Embassy visa person may be time-consuming. So, an interview waiver will take down waiting time for US visas in days to come.

For example, the approximate wait time for a B1/B2 visa interview appointment at the US Embassy in New Delhi is 925 days. On the other hand, the wait time for interview waiver cases in the same category is 291 days.

Student visa applicants with a past travel history to the US on tourist visas can seek an interview waiver and may be called for biometrics in case that wasn’t done earlier.

What exactly is a “dropbox”?

It is a time slot for the submission of the visa application, along with the required documentation, and the Embassy gives that. The drop box concept is essentially a bypassing of the interview stage.

The US acknowledges that the wait time for applicants has been long in the post-Covid period because of the backlog of applications and staffing problems. It is taking steps to iron out some of these problems.

One step is adding temporary consular staff and sending dropbox cases for processing elsewhere.