Applicants in India faced an average wait of 346 days for a US visitor visa interview in fiscal year 2025 — more than eight times the 42-day pre-pandemic average — according to a federal audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released on 29 September. The figure underscores a structural mismatch between surging post-pandemic demand and consular staffing that has yet to recover.

Scale of the Backlog

India received an estimated 1,455,255 nonimmigrant visa applications in fiscal 2025, according to the GAO audit. The US State Department had just 68 consular officers handling such visas across the country — translating to roughly 21,401 applications per officer. Those figures span several temporary visa categories, while the 346-day figure refers specifically to visitor visa interview appointments and reflects a historical average; it does not capture the additional time taken to adjudicate an application after an interview, nor does it represent the wait facing a new applicant today.

How India Compares Globally

The contrast with other major visa markets is striking. The average visitor visa interview wait stood at just 34 days in China and 32 days in Brazil. Mexico, which recorded a comparable applications-per-officer ratio to India, logged a 283-day wait. India ranked seventh among the 10 countries with the longest average wait times globally, according to the audit.

What Auditors Found on the Ground

GAO auditors visited New Delhi, alongside Mexico City, Beijing, and São Paulo. State Department staff in both India and Mexico identified high demand and insufficient post-pandemic officer strength as the primary drivers of delays. In New Delhi specifically, auditors observed hundreds of applicants queuing outside the US Embassy and in secondary waiting areas — a visible symptom of the capacity crunch.

Space constraints compounded the staffing problem. The audit noted that the New Delhi mission had too few interview windows relative to the number of officers required to clear the backlog. A planned relocation to a new building within the embassy compound would, reportedly, leave the total number of interview windows unchanged — offering little structural relief.

Visa Agents and Systemic Pressure

The audit also flagged the role of paid visa agents, who, according to State Department officials interviewed by the auditors, reserve appointment slots as they become available and resell them to clients — effectively cornering limited capacity. The department has since modified its scheduling system in an attempt to curb the practice, though the audit did not assess the effectiveness of that change.

Steps Taken So Far

The State Department has deployed several interim measures to manage the pressure. In fiscal 2024, a Washington-based unit remotely processed 80.6% of New Delhi's visitor visa cases that were eligible for an interview waiver. Consular staff in New Delhi also worked additional Saturdays to handle application volumes. Critics argue, however, that these workarounds address symptoms rather than the underlying gap between demand and consular capacity.

With no immediate expansion of interview infrastructure planned and staffing levels still below what the caseload demands, the wait-time crisis for Indian applicants is unlikely to resolve in the near term without a deliberate policy intervention from Washington.