How long do you need to wait for the National Visa Center
to schedule your immigrant or nonimmigrant visa interview?
According to the National Visa Center—or NVC—they
try to schedule interview appointments within three months of your case,
becoming documentarily complete.
But due to the COVID pandemic, interview appointments
are taking months or even years to schedule.
So how long will your case take?
And what can you do to speed it up?
The State Department has released new information about this,
so we are going to take a look at what interview wait times are
and how you can expedite yours.
And if this is your first time on my channel, be sure to subscribe
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Current visa interview wait times are longer than normal
because the pandemic slowed down routine visa services at U.S.
embassies and consulates around the world.
In 2019, the average number of pending interviews
to be scheduled by the embassy was 60,866.
But in January 2022 there were 439,373
pending interviews, more than seven times that number.
And in December of last year, there were 450,913,
which means the Department of State has not yet significantly increased
the number of monthly interviews.
At this rate, it will probably take 56 months or four
and a half years to get back to pre-COVID interview levels.
So what is the State Department doing to fix this?
According to a recent announcement, they are planning
to recruit 500 new consular officers
and have allocated $320 million
to consular services in fiscal year 2022.
But the new officers will not start working at U.S.
embassies and consulates until the second half of fiscal year
2022 or the start of fiscal year 2023.
And this increased hiring will not have an immediate effect on visa
wait times, so long as consular operations remain limited.
If you are waiting on a nonimmigrant visa, you can check the approximate
wait times for an interview at the embassy or consulate
using the online tool provided by the Bureau of Consular Affairs.
I will include a link to that in the description below.
If you are waiting for an immigrant visa interview, each embassy and consulate
will have different wait times, depending on the status of their operations.
To find out what the approximate wait times for an immigrant visa
interview is, visit the embassy website, go to their visas section
and look for information about immigrant visa processing times.
Not all locations will display this information,
so if you aren't able to find it, then the consular post
may not have published this information.
I will include a link to the websites of all U.S.
embassies and consulates in the description below,
as well as a blog that reflects the status of visa services by country every month.
And if you have been waiting for an immigrant or nonimmigrant visa interview,
please leave me a comment to let everyone know
which country you are in and how long you have been waiting.
What if you have been waiting too long and you need to speed up
your visa interview dates?
What are your options for expediting your interview?
Visa applicants with an unforeseen emergency, such as travel
for medical care, attending a funeral, urgent business or the start of school,
may qualify for an expedited visa interview, depending on availability.
To do so, visit the website of the embassy or consulate
where your interview will be scheduled and follow their instructions.
You can also write the embassy directly at NVCexpedite@state.gov
or call them directly at 603-334-0700.
Another option is to transfer your visa interview to another embassy
or consulate in a different country that has more availability.
To do so, contact the embassy you want to transfer to
and ask if they are accepting third country nationals for appointments.
If they are, contact the NVC with the written request,
along with the address in the requested country
and proof of your eligibility to be in that country.
You can do this at NVC.state.gov/inquiry.
I will include a link to this page in the description below.
If the transfer is accepted and there is an appointment available,
the embassy will transfer your case for the interview at the consulate.
Note that the embassy or consulate
tells the embassy which dates are available for interviews.
And the NVC fills them on a first-in, first-out basis,
so they cannot control when the interview will be scheduled.
And if you are not able to expedite your interview or change locations,
then you may just need to continue waiting for the NVC to contact you
with an interview date.
They will continue to send you automated emails
every 60 days, letting you know that you are in the queue
and that they are working with the embassy to get you an appointment.
Remain patient and rest assured that your interview will eventually be scheduled.
If you would like to learn more about the backlog causing these delays,
I will include a link to my recent visa backlog update here.
I will also continue to provide updates on the NVC, visa interviews,
and other important immigration news, so be sure to subscribe
and turn on notifications if you haven't done so yet.
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