US Organizations Hire Employees to Process Visa Application

The US State Department is constantly working to improve the situation with visa applications at its consular offices around the world. He achieves this, among other things, by hiring more employees. Nevertheless, the waiting times for scheduling an interview or filling out an application are often still too long.

However, several countries are already reaping the fruits of additional employment in US consulates around the world. Below is a summary of the current situation and what to expect in order to move forward.

The US publishes data on visa processing

US consulates are facing a double challenge: a mountain of visa applications accumulated during the recent times, combined with an increase in new applications since the easing of travel restrictions. In order to give transparency to this complex situation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has published new data from its authorities.

Almost 70% more nonimmigrant visas had to be processed by US consular offices between January and September 2022 than in the previous year. This corresponds to more than 800,000 nonimmigrant visa applications submitted to US foreign missions during this period.

The enormous number of new applications puts a lot of pressure on the US consulates, which are often still understaffed despite the recent improvements. Although this amount still reflects only about 80% of befor recent times enforcement levels.

The number of employees in US consulates is increasing

With the aim of reducing long waiting times for visas and restoring the processing capacity before the recent times, the US State Department is building up its worldwide consular staff. Compared to 2021, they have already hired 50% more consular officers in embassies and consulates abroad. This ongoing personnel boost is aimed at streamlining the processing of visa applications, speeding up interview appointments and ultimately bringing waiting times to befor recent times levels.

The ultimate goal is to minimize the existing long waiting times for a visa interview appointment, speed up the processing of visa applications and restore the capacity for visa processing to the befor recent times level.

Waiting times for embassy appointments of up to 24 months

Although processing times for US visa applications have shortened in some parts of the world, applicants from countries such as Colombia, India, Brazil, Chile and Canada still have to wait more than two years for US visitor visa appointments.

In addition to the above visa categories, f-1 student visa applicants and people in urgent need of work visas continue to be subject to extended waiting periods at US consulates abroad.

Long waiting times for appointments at US consulates can put a lot of pressure on young people, especially those who want to extend their visa to complete their education in this country or who are eligible for scholarships to continue their education there. Those who apply for work visas and companies that want to hire them often face similar problems.

It shouldn’t be too shocking to learn that many U.S. consulates are currently in worse conditions than they were shortly after September 11th.

However, even during this crisis, the delays of US officials were fixed in a relatively short time.

The two-year duration of the recent times has devastated the system. During this time, the majority of the small U.S. consular offices only offered emergency appointments; they are now gradually beginning to resume their more regular service. However, there are strong reasons to hope that things will improve soon.