High demand, limited consular staffing and space constraints contributed to prolonged interview backlogs, while the US State Department introduced measures to ease pressure
Washington, Sept 2026 : Applicants in India waited an average of 346 days for a US visitor visa interview during fiscal 2025, more than eight times the 42-day average recorded before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a federal audit released in the United States.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that demand for nonimmigrant visas in India had grown faster than the capacity of the US consular system, contributing to lengthy interview backlogs.
The 346-day figure represents a historical average for obtaining a visitor visa interview during fiscal 2025. It does not indicate how long applicants currently have to wait, nor does it include the time taken by US authorities to adjudicate an application after the interview.
The audit estimated that India received 1,455,255 applications for nonimmigrant visas in 2025. At the same time, the US State Department had 68 consular officers working on such visas in the country. That amounted to roughly 21,401 applications per officer.
The figures cover multiple categories of temporary visas, while the 346-day waiting period specifically relates to visitor visa interviews, the report noted.
India's waiting period was considerably longer than those recorded in several other major visa-processing countries. The average visitor visa interview wait stood at 34 days in China and 32 days in Brazil. Mexico recorded an average wait of 283 days despite having a similar level of applications per consular officer.
India ranked seventh among the 10 countries examined by the GAO with the longest average visitor visa interview waits.
GAO auditors visited US consular facilities in New Delhi, Mexico City, Beijing and Sao Paulo as part of their review. Officials in India and Mexico told the auditors that high demand, combined with insufficient staffing following the pandemic, had made it difficult to eliminate accumulated backlogs.
Across the four countries, staffing levels relative to visa demand emerged as one of the principal factors affecting interview delays.
Infrastructure constraints also added to the problem in New Delhi. The audit found that the US Embassy had too few interview windows to accommodate the number of consular officers required to process the volume of applications. Auditors observed hundreds of applicants waiting outside the embassy as well as in secondary waiting areas.
The report said a planned move to a new building within the embassy compound would not increase the number of available interview windows, potentially limiting the scope for expanding in-person processing.
Officials also pointed to the complexity of evaluating certain applications and the involvement of paid visa agents. According to State Department officials interviewed by auditors, some agents reserve appointment slots when they become available and subsequently sell them to clients. The department has modified its appointment scheduling system in an effort to address the practice.
The State Department has also adopted measures to reduce pressure on consular posts. During fiscal 2024, a Washington-based unit remotely processed 80.6 per cent of New Delhi's visitor visa cases that were eligible for interview waivers. Consular staff in New Delhi also worked additional Saturdays to process applications and reduce backlogs.
The audit highlights the scale of the challenge faced by US consular operations in India as demand for American travel continues to place pressure on visa-processing capacity.
(Disclaimer :The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the Mavericknews30 team.)
