Federal Audit Finds Average 346-Day Wait for U.S. Visitor Visa Interviews in India
Washington — Applicants in India waited an average of 346 days for a U.S. visitor visa interview in fiscal 2025, more than eight times the pre-pandemic average of 42 days, according to a federal audit released Monday.
The Government Accountability Office found that visa demand in India had outpaced available consular staffing, contributing to lengthy interview backlogs.
The 346-day figure represents a historical average for securing a visitor visa interview. It does not reflect how long the State Department takes to decide an application after the interview or the current wait facing someone applying today.
According to the audit, India received an estimated 1,455,255 nonimmigrant visa applications in fiscal 2025. The State Department had 68 consular officers handling such visas in the country, or about 21,401 applications per officer.
Those figures cover several temporary visa categories, while the 346-day wait applies specifically to visitor visa interviews.
India’s wait times were significantly longer than those in several other major visa markets. The average visitor visa interview wait was 34 days in China and 32 days in Brazil. Mexico, which had a similar number of applications per consular officer as India, recorded an average wait of 283 days.
India ranked seventh among the 10 countries with the longest average visitor visa interview waits, according to the audit.
GAO auditors visited New Delhi as part of their review, along with Mexico City, Beijing and São Paulo. State Department personnel in India and Mexico told auditors that strong post-pandemic demand and insufficient staffing had made it difficult to eliminate backlogs.
Across the four countries reviewed, officials identified staffing levels relative to demand as a major factor behind interview delays.
Limited space also contributed to the problem in New Delhi. The audit found that the U.S. Embassy had too few interview windows to accommodate the number of officers needed to process demand.
Auditors observed hundreds of applicants waiting outside the embassy and in secondary waiting areas. A planned relocation to a new building on the embassy compound would not increase the number of interview windows, according to the report.
Officials also cited the complexity of reviewing some applications and the activities of paid visa agents as factors affecting appointment availability. State Department personnel told auditors that some agents reserve appointment slots as they become available and then sell them to clients.
The department has made changes to its scheduling system in an effort to curb that practice.
The State Department has also taken other steps to reduce the backlog. In fiscal 2024, a Washington-based processing unit remotely handled 80.6 percent of New Delhi’s visitor visa cases that qualified for an interview waiver.
Consular employees in New Delhi also worked additional Saturdays to process visa applications and increase capacity. (Source: IANS)
