US visa: 2.5 lakh tourist visa appointments opened in India, but applicants say, ‘no slots for 2023’

The U.S. Embassy in India on Wednesday informed that it opened a ‘quarter million nonimmigrant visa appointments’ or tourist visas over the weekend. However, don't get excited immediately as the appointments are ‘not available for this year’

Earlier today, the U.S. Embassy in India took to X to announce, “it was a busy weekend for our consular team! Over the weekend we opened over a quarter million nonimmigrant visa appointments!”

However, when applicants tried to book slots they found that no dates were available for 2023.

Shubhashish, who tried to reschedule his existing US visa appointment date (May 24), found that ‘there are no dates in Mumbai till June 2024’ and ‘earliest from Delhi is February 22, 2024’

Noting similar woes, one X user said, ‘Slot available for September 2024’

‘No appointments, portal issues restrict applicants from scheduling any appointments. There is no submit option when I try to schedule an appointment.. email sent.. awaiting swift action..,’ another user reports.

Last week, a Mint report, citing the Department of State- Bureau of Consular Affairs website, said that the wait time for US tourist visas from several cities is still over 500 days, precisely between 506 days and 596 days.

Check the wait time from your city:

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

However, it is to be noted that the 500-day wait period for a tourist visa is a significant drop from the 1,000-day waiting period earlier this year.

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.