In India, the average wait for a US visa interview reached 346 days — NDTV World

In India, applicants for US visitor visas waited an average of 346 days for an interview in fiscal year 2025. This is more than eight times the pre-pandemic average of 42 days, according to a federal audit reported by NDTV World.

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that demand for visas in India exceeded the capacity of consular staff. The figure of 346 days is the historical average waiting time specifically for scheduling an interview. It does not reflect the duration of application processing after the interview or the waiting time for those applying now.

Workload of consular staff

According to the audit, an estimated 1,455,255 nonimmigrant visa applications were received in India in fiscal year 2025. There were 68 consular staff members in the country handling such visas, meaning that each employee handled an average of about 21,401 applications.

These data cover several categories of temporary visas, while the 346-day figure applies only to visitor visa interviews. By comparison, the average waiting time for such an interview was 34 days in China and 32 days in Brazil. In Mexico, where the number of applications per employee was similar to India’s, the average wait was 283 days.

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Shortage of facilities and countering intermediaries

The auditors visited New Delhi, Mexico City, Beijing, and São Paulo. US State Department staff in India and Mexico said that high demand and a shortage of consular personnel after the pandemic made it difficult to eliminate accumulated backlogs.

The report also notes that the US Embassy in New Delhi lacks enough interview windows for the number of consular staff needed to handle demand. Auditors saw hundreds of people waiting outside the embassy and in additional waiting rooms. A planned move to a new building on the embassy compound will not increase the number of such windows.

Officials also reported the activity of paid visa agents who book available slots and sell them to clients. The State Department changed its appointment system to counter this practice. In fiscal year 2024, a Washington-based unit processed remotely 80.6% of New Delhi visitor visa cases that could be considered without an interview.