US Visa applicants: Consulates to conduct visa interviews on select Saturdays

Kolkata: In a bid to reduce wait time for first-time visa applicants, the United States Kolkata consulate on Sunday shared that the ‘U.S. Mission in India’ launched the first in a series of special Saturday interview days.

Under this initiative, the US Embassy in New Delhi and consulates in Kolkata Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad all opened consular operations on Saturday to accommodate applicants who require in-person visa interviews. In the coming months, the mission will continue to open additional slots for appointments on select Saturdays. These additional interview days are just one component of a multi-pronged initiative to address the backlog in visa processing caused by COVID-19:

To simplify matters, the Department of State has implemented remote processing of interview waiver cases for applicants with previous U.S. visas. Between January and March 2023, dozens of temporary consular officers from Washington and other embassies will arrive in India to increase processing capacity. Also the number of consular officers permanently assigned to the embassy and consulates are being augmented.

Data revealed that the U.S. Mission in India released more than 250,000 additional B1/B2 visa appointments. The U.S. Mission in India is aiming to process visas at the levels that existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic had resulted in profound reductions in the Department’s visa processing capacity, since US embassies and consulates were at times only able to offer emergency services. An issued statement read that with travel restrictions now withdrawn, the U.S. Mission to India has made it a priority to facilitate legitimate travel and adjudicated over 800,000 nonimmigrant visas in 2022, including record numbers of both student and employment visas. In every other visa category, interview wait times in India are at pre-pandemic levels or lower.