So, you’re planning a trip to the U.S. for business or pleasure and you've got your eye on a B1/B2 visa. That's the first step. But for many applicants from countries like Mexico, Colombia, or Brazil, the real challenge—the one that trips up countless people—is figuring out how long you'll have to wait for that all-important visa interview.
The term US embassy wait times refers to the estimated time between when you're ready to book your interview and the date the appointment actually happens. This isn't a fixed number; it can be anything from a few short weeks to, in some cases, well over a year. It all depends on where you're applying.
Understanding US Visa Wait Times
Trying to make sense of the U.S. visa process can feel a bit like trying to get a reservation at the hottest new restaurant in town. You know you want to go, but getting a spot is the tricky part. The "wait time" isn't just one single number; it’s actually a combination of two different figures that tell slightly different stories about your potential wait.
To really get a handle on these wait times, you first need a solid grasp of the entire application journey. If you're just starting out, reviewing the basics of how to get a US tourist visa is a great way to build that foundation. Once you know the steps, the wait time data from the U.S. Department of State starts to make a lot more sense.
The Two Key Wait Time Metrics
The official information from the State Department can be a little confusing if you don't know what you're looking for. Let’s break it down.
As of April 2025, the U.S. Department of State reports two distinct numbers to give applicants a clearer picture. It’s important not to mix them up, as they measure different things.
This table explains the two key metrics you'll encounter.
Key Visa Wait Time Metrics Explained
| Metric | What It Measures | Best Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Next Available Appointment | The estimated date of the very next open interview slot at a specific embassy or consulate. | Getting a real-time snapshot of the soonest you could possibly book an interview if you acted immediately. |
| Average Wait Time | The historical average number of days that applicants who scheduled an interview during the past month had to wait. | Understanding the typical wait time recent applicants have experienced, giving you a more realistic planning timeline. |
Essentially, the "Next Available Appointment" is a live look at the booking system, while the "Average Wait Time" is a look back at how long people have actually been waiting.
Just remember, these figures are only estimates. The actual appointment you see when you log in can change in a flash as other people cancel or the embassy opens up new slots.
Getting your head around this difference is the first real step to setting realistic expectations. It helps you plan your travel without last-minute panic and approach the visa process with a clear strategy.
So, Why Are Visa Appointment Waits So Incredibly Long?
It’s a question that causes endless frustration for applicants: why does it take months, sometimes even over a year, just to get a 10-minute interview slot? The truth is, it's not one single problem but a perfect storm of global events that has put immense pressure on U.S. consular services everywhere.
Think of it like a major highway that was completely shut down for months. When it finally reopens, you don't just have the normal daily traffic—you have all the cars that were stuck waiting, all trying to get through at the same time. The gridlock is inevitable.
The Massive Pandemic Backlog
The biggest culprit behind today's long waits is, without a doubt, the fallout from the global pandemic. For the better part of two years, U.S. embassies and consulates around the world either closed their doors completely or operated with just a handful of staff.
Routine visa processing ground to a halt. This created a gigantic backlog of applications that just sat there, waiting. When services finally started ramping up again, consular officers were hit with a double whammy: a mountain of old applications and a constant flow of new ones. Digging out from under that pile is a slow, painstaking process that’s still going on.
A Flood of Demand Meets a Shortage of Staff
Once travel restrictions began to lift, the floodgates opened. People who had put off family visits, crucial business trips, or long-awaited vacations all rushed to apply for visas at once. This created an unprecedented surge in demand for B1/B2 visitor visas, overwhelming a system that was already stretched thin.
To make matters worse, many embassies are still dealing with staffing shortages. It takes a long time to recruit, train, and get a consular officer in place, and many posts are simply not back to their pre-pandemic operational strength. This is especially true in high-volume countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, where the demand is off the charts.
At its core, this is a classic supply and demand issue. There are far more people wanting to get a visa than there are available interview slots to accommodate them.
The numbers tell the story. While we've seen some improvement, with average wait times in major markets falling from 206 days to 188 days between January and October 2025, that's still a six-month wait. It’s a significant barrier for anyone trying to plan a trip. You can dig deeper into the numbers yourself by checking out the State Department's visa wait time data.
When you put all these pieces together—the backlog, the surge in applications, and the staffing issues—you get the challenging situation we see today. Knowing what's happening behind the curtain is the first step in figuring out how to navigate these long waits.
Wait Times Around the World
One of the biggest surprises for visa applicants is discovering that wait times aren't the same everywhere. Not even close. Applying for a visa in London is a completely different ballgame than applying in Bogotá.
This isn't random. The massive difference in your wait comes down to a few key local factors: how many people are applying, how many staff the consulate has, and any leftover backlogs from previous years. It's a classic supply and demand problem, and understanding it is crucial for planning your journey.
A Look at Global Hotspots
Some parts of the world are notorious for long waits, especially in Latin America and other high-demand regions. This is where the post-pandemic recovery, skyrocketing demand for travel, and staffing issues have created a perfect storm.
As you can see, it's not just one thing causing the bottleneck. It's a combination of factors that makes the problem incredibly tricky to solve quickly.
The numbers really tell the story. In September 2025, the U.S. State Department data showed some eye-watering waits for a standard B1/B2 visitor visa. Applicants in Hermosillo, Mexico, were staring down a wait of 20.5 months. In Bogotá, Colombia, the average was 15 months. It’s not just a Latin American issue, either—Indian citizens applying in Toronto faced 15.5 months and Ottawa was at 12 months.
You can dig into these global visa wait time trends yourself to see how wildly the situation can change from one country to the next.
The big takeaway? Your physical location is the single most important factor in your visa timeline. Someone in a low-demand country might get an appointment in a few weeks, while a person in a busy city could be waiting well over a year for the exact same visa.
Why Location Matters So Much
Think of each U.S. embassy or consulate as its own separate office. Each one manages its own calendar, its own staff, and its own workload, and they are all heavily influenced by local conditions.
Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes:
Local Application Volume: Countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil have a staggering number of people applying for B1/B2 visas, which naturally creates a huge queue.
Staffing and Resources: An embassy can only conduct as many interviews as it has consular officers available to do the work. If a post is understaffed, the line gets longer.
Third-Country Nationals (TCNs): Some consulates, particularly in places like Canada or Mexico, are popular spots for people from other countries to apply (like an Indian citizen residing in Toronto). This adds even more people to the local applicant pool.
How to Check Official Embassy Wait Times
Knowing where to find solid, reliable information is your first real step to getting ahead of the long waits. Your go-to source is the official U.S. Department of State's Visa Appointment Wait Times tool. This is the government's own official estimate for every single consular post around the globe.
Using the tool itself is pretty simple. You just find the city where you plan to apply for your visa from a dropdown list. The site will then show you the estimated wait times for different nonimmigrant visa types, including the common B1/B2 visitor visa.
Navigating the Official Wait Time Tool
It only takes a few clicks to get a basic idea of what you're up against at your chosen consulate.
Head to the Website: Go directly to the official Visa Appointment Wait Times page on the State Department's website.
Pick Your City: From the dropdown menu, select the city where your embassy or consulate is located.
Check the Times: The page will refresh and show you the estimated wait for the "Next Available Appointment," listed in calendar days.
Here’s a quick look at what you’ll see when you select a post, using Bogotá, Colombia as an example.
This snapshot gives you the official government estimate, which is a great starting point for your planning. It helps set your expectations for the potential timeline at that specific location.
The Big Limitation You Must Know
While this official tool is an essential first stop, it has one major catch that you absolutely need to understand.
The time displayed is just an estimate. The real, live appointment calendar—with the actual dates you can book—is only unlocked after you’ve filled out your DS-160 form, created an online account, and paid the non-refundable visa application fee.
This means the number you see on the public website might not match the dates you find when you're actually ready to schedule. Think of it as a general guide, not a guarantee.
Once you do get your appointment booked, you'll want to keep tabs on its progress. You can learn how to check the status of your visa application as you move on to the next stages of the process.
Strategies for Finding an Earlier Appointment
Seeing a visa appointment date that's months, or even over a year, away can be incredibly frustrating. It’s easy to feel powerless, but you have more control than you think. While you can't snap your fingers and clear the embassy's entire backlog, you can absolutely be proactive and strategic to find a better spot.
The whole game is about shifting from passively waiting for your date to actively hunting for an earlier one.
It really comes down to understanding how and when new slots open up and being ready to pounce the second one appears. Let’s walk through a few proven tactics that can help you navigate the long US embassy wait times and potentially shave months off your wait.
The Manual Refresh: Checking for Canceled Appointments
The most direct approach is also the one that requires the most patience: manually refreshing the appointment scheduling website. People cancel their appointments every single day for all sorts of reasons. Each cancellation pops a new slot back into the system, and it’s first come, first served.
These openings are completely random and often get snatched up in seconds. I’m not kidding. To succeed here, you need a mix of persistence and good timing. This means checking the portal constantly throughout the day—and yes, even at odd hours like 5 a.m. or late at night. It’s a grind, but plenty of applicants have gotten lucky this way.
The Location-Hopper: Applying as a Third-Country National
Another creative strategy is to apply in a completely different country. This is officially known as applying as a Third-Country National (TCN). For instance, if you're a Colombian citizen facing a 15-month wait in Bogotá, you might discover that the embassy in nearby Panama has openings in just a few months.
This can be a fantastic option, but it comes with some serious caveats:
You Must Be There: You have to physically travel to that country for your interview. No exceptions.
Ties to Home: The consular officer will still judge your application based on your ties to your home country, not the one where you're interviewing. If you can't prove you have strong reasons (family, job, property) to return home, you risk denial.
Embassy Rules: Not every embassy or consulate accepts TCN applications, and some have strict rules. Always check the specific embassy's website for its policy on non-resident applicants before you even think about booking a flight.
A quick tip from experience: This strategy works best for people who are already legally residing in that third country—for example, an Indian citizen with a valid work permit in Canada. They can more easily explain why they're applying from there.
The Emergency Lane: Requesting an Expedited Appointment
For truly urgent, life-or-death situations, you can request an expedited appointment. Let me be clear: this isn't for cutting the line to attend a wedding or a business conference. This is reserved for genuine, documented emergencies.
Here are the kinds of situations that typically qualify:
Urgent medical treatment for yourself or your child in the U.S.
A death or life-threatening illness of an immediate family member in the U.S.
A sudden, critical business need that would result in a massive financial loss.
To even be considered, you must book a regular appointment first. Only then can you submit a formal request through the online portal, complete with hard evidence to back up your claim. The final call is entirely up to the consular section. If you think this might apply to you, you can learn more about how to expedite a US visa appointment in our dedicated guide.
The Smart Way: Using an Automated Monitoring Tool
Let’s be honest, manually refreshing a website all day is a terrible use of your time. This is where technology becomes your best friend. Automated tools like Vast Fisa were built to solve this exact headache.
These services act as your personal lookout, monitoring the appointment system 24/7. The moment a canceled or newly available slot opens up that matches your criteria, the tool can instantly notify you. Some can even automatically reschedule the appointment on your behalf (with your permission, of course).
This gives you a huge leg up, as a machine can spot and claim an opening far faster than any human can click. It turns a frustrating game of luck into a smart, automated process that works for you while you live your life.
Common Questions About Visa Wait Times
Trying to make sense of US embassy wait times can feel like a maze. It’s natural to have a ton of questions, and getting clear answers is the first step to planning your visa application with confidence. Let's break down some of the most common things B1/B2 applicants ask.
Can I Book My Visa Interview in Another Country?
Absolutely. This is a popular tactic known as applying as a "third-country national" (TCN). If the wait time in your home country is incredibly long—say, in high-demand locations like Bogotá or Mexico City—you might discover that an embassy in a nearby country has openings much sooner.
But there’s a catch. You have to be physically present for the interview in that country, no exceptions. More importantly, the consular officer will still be looking at your ties to your home country, not the one where you’re interviewing. If you can't show strong proof of a stable job, family, or property that proves you’ll return home, your visa could easily be denied.
This strategy tends to work best for people already legally residing in that third country, such as an Indian citizen on a work permit in Canada or a Venezuelan citizen living in Colombia.
How Often Do New Appointment Slots Open Up?
This is the million-dollar question, and the answer is: there's no set schedule. Embassies might release new appointments in big batches when they have the capacity, but individual slots also pop up randomly all day, every day.
These surprise openings are usually from other applicants canceling or rescheduling their appointments. They can appear at any time—early morning, late at night, you name it. That’s what makes checking the portal manually so frustrating. It’s also why automated tools are so powerful; they can spot and grab those fleeting opportunities the second they appear.
The key takeaway is that the appointment calendar is dynamic and constantly changing. A fully booked schedule one day might have several openings the next due to cancellations.
What Qualifies for an Emergency Visa Appointment?
Requesting an expedited or emergency appointment is only for truly urgent, unforeseen circumstances. It's not a shortcut for a poorly planned vacation or even for important events like weddings or conferences.
Generally, the situation has to fall into one of these strict categories:
Urgent Medical Needs: You or your minor child need immediate medical treatment in the U.S.
Family Emergency: An immediate family member (like a parent, sibling, or child) in the U.S. has passed away or is critically ill.
Unexpected Business Travel: A critical business trip that couldn't have been predicted and would cause a major financial loss to a U.S. company if missed.
To even apply, you first have to book a regular appointment. Then, you submit a separate request with solid proof of your emergency. The final decision is completely up to the consular section, and getting approved is never a sure thing. If you're thinking about this, our guide on how to reschedule a US visa appointment provides some good background on the mechanics of changing your date.
Are the Posted Wait Times Accurate?
Not really. The wait times you see on the U.S. Department of State's website are estimates, not guarantees. The "Next Available Appointment" is just a snapshot in time that can be outdated minutes after you see it.
Think of the official wait time like a weather forecast—it gives you a general idea, but the real conditions might be totally different when you’re ready to book. The only way to see the actual, live availability is to complete your DS-160 form, pay the visa fee, and log into the official scheduling portal. Always be ready for the dates you find there to be different from the initial estimate.
Frustrated with the endless manual checking and missed opportunities? Vast Fisa monitors the visa appointment system 24/7 and automatically reschedules your interview for an earlier date the moment one becomes available. Stop waiting and start planning your trip sooner. Learn how it works at Vast Fisa.