US visa wait time still over 500 days! Delhi to Mumbai, list of cities with longest, shortest wait period

Despite the U.S. government's efforts to expedite visa processing in India, wait times can still exceed 500 days.

As per the Department of State- Bureau of Consular Affairs website, currently the wait time for B1/B2 non-immigrant visitor visa appointments in different cities varies between 506 days and 596 days. However, this is a significant drop from the 1,000-day waiting period earlier this year.

The B1 visa covers business-related travel to the US, meanwhile, the B2 visa is for tourism, medical treatment, and social events. Both can be issued together so that the applicants can travel for both business and pleasure.

Here is the estimated wait time from your city: 

• New Delhi: 542 days
• Mumbai: 596 days
• Kolkata: 539 days
• Chennai: 531 days
• Hyderabad: 511 days

However, for H-1B visa or an F1 visa, the wait times are much shorter. Typically, the wait time can range between 2 days to 90 days. 

Over the past year, efforts were made to address the extended wait times, which had reached almost three years last winter. To address the visa application backlog and meet rising demand, Indians were given the opportunity to apply for U.S. visas at U.S. consulates located outside India, like the one in Bangkok, where the visa wait time is significantly lower.

Last month an embassy official said, as reported by TOI, "In India, all non-immigrant visa categories, except first-time visitor visa applicants, have interview wait times close to pre-pandemic levels or lower. We have significantly increased the number of visas issued across the board.... Wait times for travelers who do not require an interview are very low."

US govt planning to overhaul H1B visa programme

Last week, the Joe Biden administration proposed changes in the H-1B foreign workers programme to improve efficiency by streamlining eligibility, providing more flexibility to F-1 students, entrepreneurs and those working for non-profit bodies and ensuring better conditions for other non-immigrant workers. The rules have been proposed without changing the Congress-mandated 60,000 limit on the number of such visas the US issues every year.