Others often still require applicants to be interviewed regardless.”Īmid growing calls for the US administration to act to relieve visa processing times, the Cato report points out as well that there is precedent for executive intervention when wait times become excessive: “The last time visa wait times grew above a few months, then‐President Obama ordered that 80% of all temporary visas be issued in less than 21 days. Others require applicants to drop off in‐person. Some consulates simply allow renewal applicants to submit their paperwork via mail. But consulates are implementing this policy in very different ways. “The State Department has waived the need to obtain an interview for most travellers who had previously held a visa in the last four years. “These statistics also do not include what amounts to a shadow backlog of applicants seeking to renew their temporary visas,” adds Mr Bier. In contrast, those applying via consulates or embassies such as Ho Chi Minh City (6 days), Bangkok (7 days), or Beijing (2 days) will encounter wait times below pre-pandemic averages. State Department data also shows that processing times vary widely, not only by visa class but also by diplomatic post, as we see in the table below.Īs of July 2022, students applying via Dhaka (551 days), Istanbul (428 days), Abu Dhabi (310 days) will endure some of the longest delays for their visa interviews. “Currently, the first available dates for a visitor visa appointment in Nairobi are in June 2024.” This is a worldwide problem that US embassies are diligently striving to address.”
As we work through the backlog of applications and address the high demand for services, we recognise that some applicants may face extended visa interview wait times.
Us travel doc appointment full#
The Embassy restarted interviews at full capacity in February 2022. “Due to COVID-19 health and safety measures, nonimmigrant visa interviews at US Embassy Nairobi ceased for over a year.
Us travel doc appointment update#
In one telling illustration of this cascading effect, a 25 July 2022 update from the US Embassy in Kenya explains: “You can’t just shut down an entire bureaucracy for more than a year and not expect to have a cascade of consequences,” says David Bier, the Institute’s associate director.
The issue is simply the backlog of visa files that accumulated in US consulates and embassies around the world during an extended processing closure during the pandemic.
0 kommentar(er)
