Waiting For USA’s B1 & B2 Visas May be Over Soon

Latest Update on USA’s B1 & B2 Visas

As per the latest update, certain category candidates who are looking to apply for US B1 and B2 (business and tourist) visas from India get a little sense of relief. Indians who have their visas expired more than four years ago, can apply for a visa interview at some selected American embassies to specific destinations.

An Impact of the Wuhan Virus

The Wuhan virus pandemic not only affected human lives, several industries and employment but also the worst effect of the virus damaged the infrastructure and system set-up as well. For instance, the immigration industry faced the biggest loss during the period. On the other end, an immigration setup, embassy operations and visa process were hampered a lot too.

But as the world has started recovering from the COVID-19 impact, all the countries have opened their international borders. As far as the USA has concerned, they have also opened their gates to international students and travellers. However, due to the lack of staff and a huge number of applications backlog the appointment schedules got delayed.

• The inflow from India was massive and due to that the waiting period for interviews reached 596 in Delhi, 638 in Mumbai, 589 days in Kolkata, 617 in Chennai and 609 in Hyderabad.
• There was also a drop box applications system implemented for Indians to its mission outside India. However, cut the visa interview wait had reached almost 1000 days for the B1/B2 visas.

Find the Solution

To get rid of the situation and manage the inflow of a huge number of applications the US immigration has implemented some innovative ways and also focused on the new recruitment of immigration officers. In the hierarchy, here are some other steps that have been taken by the US government.

• According to the recent update, Indians who would like to apply for a travelling visa or business visa. Moreover, if they are not eligible for an interview waiver, as well. Additionally, if their visas expired more than four years ago, they can apply for a USA visa in a given-below way.
• Such eligible candidates can select some American embassies abroad to save their long appointment waiting period. For example, if an applicant applies for a US B1/B2 visa from India the waiting period would be nearly 500 to 600 days at least. On the other end of the same applicant applies for the same visa from Thailand then the waiting period will be 14 days only.
• Similarly, candidates can also apply for B1/B2 visas from Singapore, and Vietnam too. In addition, candidates may also apply for the interview from some of the Latam countries as well like Brazil.
• Such ways helped the US consulate to be processed more than 100,000 in January month.
• The Indian government has also taken the issue of the increasing backlog into their consideration and as a result, Foreign Minister Mr S Jaishankar discussed the point with the US Secretary of State Mr Antony Blinken last September.

Also Read: Different Types of Non-Immigrant USA Visas