Published on : September 6, 2022
The US Embassy and Consulates in India have resumed routine tourist visa appointments. In-person interview requirements for certain visa applicants in India have been waived.
Recently, the US Mission to India announced the resumption of “routine in-person tourist visa appointments in September 2022”. The previously scheduled placeholders were cancelled.
The appointments made available now are not placeholder appointments.
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The US Embassy in India has also authorised consular officers to waive the in-person interview requirement for specific US visa categories till December 2022.
The in-person interview requirement waiver applies to travelers that were -
(1) applying for a visa in their country of residence or nationality,
(2) had previously been issued a visa, and
(3) were now “applying for F, H-1, H-3, H-4, non-blanket L, M, O, P, Q, and academic J visas”.
This is not applicable to applicants with a previous refusal that was not later overcome or waived. An in-person interview might be requested if further information is required by the consular officer from the applicant.
In-person interviews for nonimmigrant tourist visa US B-1/B-2 continue to be gradually resumed in keeping with the available staffing resources. More appointment slots are expected to be opened in the coming weeks.
As per the official website of the US Embassy and Consulates in India, a large number of placeholder B-1/B-2 appointment slots for October-November 2022 have been canceled. Applicants that have had their placeholder appointment cancelled may book a new appointment by logging back into the system.
Do note that all appointments available as of now are regular US visa interview appointments. No placeholder slots are available.
The US Mission in India has extended the validity of the payment of the Machine Readable Visa visa, commonly referred to as the MRV fees, until September 30, 2023.
The extension of the MRV fees for visa applicants in India benefits applicants that had already paid the visa application processing fees but were unable to schedule a visa appointment due to the suspension of routine consular operations. Such applicants can schedule their visa appointment and/or attend the same with the MRV fees already paid.
As per the latest statistics with the US Department of State - Nonimmigrant Visa Issuances by Nationality July 2022 (FY 2022) - a total of 22,270 B1/B2 visas were issued to Indians in July 2022.
Topics: USA
