US visa appointment wait times

It depends on the post, and the range across India is wider than most people expect. The next available business or tourist appointment is 11.5 Months at Mumbai and 6.5 Months at Kolkata, on State's figures of 17 September 2026. Students and exchange visitors on F, M and J visas wait far less than visitor applicants at every Indian post, and petition-based workers on H, L, O, P and Q visas less again. Two things decide which number applies to you. The first is your visa category, because the columns differ by more than a year at the same building. The second is whether you need an interview at all, because these figures cover interview-required appointments only and an interview waiver application is not in them.

State publishes the figures without explaining them, so any reason given for the gap is speculation rather than reporting. What the numbers do say is clear enough: Mumbai's next available visitor appointment is 11.5 Months against 6.5 Months at Kolkata, a gap of roughly 6 months. The useful part is that you are not required to use the post nearest you. State's instruction, updated on 15 July 2026, is that nonimmigrant applicants schedule their interview at the embassy or consulate in their country of nationality or residence, and it sets no rule about which post within that country. Someone living in India therefore satisfies it at any of the five. Two things are worth weighing before you book on queue length alone: you must be able to show residence in the country you apply in, and travelling to a distant post means the interview, and any request to return with documents, happens there.

Yes for an interview, and no for an interview waiver, and the difference catches people out. The State Department's instruction of 15 July 2026 is that nonimmigrant visa applicants should schedule their interview appointment at the U.S. embassy or consulate in their country of nationality or residence. That rule is written at the level of the country, so an applicant resident in India meets it at New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad or Kolkata, and someone in Ahmedabad facing Mumbai's queue is not obliged to wait in it. An interview waiver submission is different: the published criteria require you to apply in the consular district of your residence, so a dropbox file does not have the same freedom. State also asks that you be able to demonstrate residence in the country where you apply, and warns that its fee is neither refundable nor transferable, so confirm the arrangement with the post before you pay anything.

No, and this is the most common way the table is misread. State states directly that interview waiver appointments are not reflected in its figures, so none of the months on this page describe a dropbox application. What governs an interview waiver instead is a processing estimate of up to three weeks from the day the passport is dropped off until it is ready, which the official guidance says cannot be expedited under any circumstances. Check first whether you qualify for the waiver at all, because the criteria narrowed and now cover renewals of a B-1, B-2 or B-1/B-2 visa along with certain diplomatic and official categories. If you do qualify, the interview queue is not your queue.

Biometrics and the interview are two separate appointments at two separate places, which is where this question usually goes wrong. Fingerprints and a digital photograph are collected at a Visa Application Center, and the official rule is that the VAC appointment must be scheduled at least 2 business days before the interview date. So biometrics comes first and the interview is the appointment the wait times measure, rather than something that follows it. Once the interview has happened, the official guidance puts typical processing at seven to ten working days, with individual cases varying. An applicant on the interview waiver route gives no fresh biometrics at all, because having had all ten fingerprints taken when the previous visa was issued is one of the conditions of qualifying.

There are five official grounds for an expedited appointment, and they are the legitimate route rather than a slot-hunting browser extension. They cover medical needs, a funeral or death, students and exchange visitors whose programme starts too soon, applicants refused ESTA with travel already booked, and urgent business travel that arose after booking. An expedited request is granted at the post's discretion and depends on availability, so it is a request rather than a purchase. The route to avoid is automation: the official appointment service prohibits browser extensions and bots in its terms, warns that accounts linked to them may be restricted, and returns an "Access limitation" message on the calendar page that takes at least 24 hours to clear after the tool is removed.