U.S. State Department Reports Mumbai as Slowest for B1/B2 Visitor Visa Interviews

(INDIA) — The U.S. Department of State’s latest visa data put Chennai at the front of India’s queue for B1/B2 visitor visa interviews and left Mumbai at the back, with waits stretching from 1.5 to 3.5 months in Chennai and 9.5 months in Mumbai as of February 2026.

That gap matters for travelers trying to plan business trips, tourism and family visits to the United States. Across India’s main U.S. consular posts, appointment availability for visitor visas now varies sharply by city, with Chennai offering the quickest route and Mumbai slowest by a wide margin.

Figures on the U.S. Department of State’s Global Visa Wait Times page, last updated February 13, 2026, listed Chennai at 3.5 months for B1/B2 interviews. Other updates placed Chennai in a range of 1.5 to 3 months, while Mumbai showed a 9.5 months average wait and next available appointments at around 10 months.

New Delhi fell between 6.5 and 10 months. Hyderabad ranged from 5 to 8 months, while Kolkata ranged from 2.5 to 5 months.

The spread shows how differently applicants may fare depending on where they seek an interview. A traveler applying through Chennai could face a much shorter delay than someone trying to book in Mumbai, where backlogs remain far heavier.

For applicants in India, the timing differences are not limited to visitor visas. Student visas in the F, M and J categories generally move faster than B1/B2 interviews, and petition-based work visas in the H, L, O, P and Q categories also tend to have shorter waits.

In New Delhi, student visa waits stood at less than 0.5 months, and work visas were also at less than 0.5 months in November 2025 data. Chennai showed about 1-3 months for student visas and 1-2 months for work visas, while Mumbai showed about 3 months for student visas and 1 month for work visas.

Hyderabad posted 2.5 months for student visas and 2 months for work visas. Kolkata showed 2.5 months for student visas, while work visa data there was listed as NA.

Those contrasts mean the longest delays are concentrated in the visitor category rather than spread evenly across all travel classes. For Indian applicants, the B1/B2 line remains the one with the most uneven pressure across posts.

Chennai’s position as the quickest option appears in more than one update. The city was listed at 3 months in November 2025 and at 1.5 months average in a February update, alongside the 3.5 months figure shown on the Global Visa Wait Times page.

Mumbai moved in the other direction, with current estimates around 9.5 to 10 months. That makes it the outlier among Indian consulates for visitor interviews, and the phrase “Mumbai slowest” captures the ranking shown across the latest city-by-city figures.

New Delhi also remains under pressure, with a range that reaches 10 months. Hyderabad sits below that but still well above Chennai and Kolkata on most recent estimates.

Kolkata stands closer to the faster end of the scale, at 2.5 to 5 months. That still leaves applicants facing a wait, but it is far shorter than the delay in Mumbai and shorter than the upper ranges reported for New Delhi and Hyderabad.

The numbers reflect waits for interview appointments, not the full end-to-end time for a visa case. That distinction is important because post-interview processing is excluded from the published wait times.

Applicants are also advised to allow 180 days minimum before status inquiries, except emergencies. In practice, that means the interview date is only one step in a process that can extend beyond the slot shown on the booking system.

Demand has also shifted enough over the past year to make older comparisons less useful. February 2025 data, including Chennai at 28 days for some categories, is now outdated because of rising demand.

That change helps explain why recent booking conditions look tighter than older snapshots. It also means applicants relying on older figures may underestimate current waits, especially for visitor appointments in high-demand cities.

Recent slot availability offers another glimpse of how far out calendars now stretch. Chennai VAC showed B2 slots to December 28, 2026, while Mumbai showed availability to January 4, 2027 for third-country national regular appointments.

Those dates do not replace the average wait-time figures, but they point in the same direction. Chennai still appears more accessible than Mumbai, even as both cities show calendars extending well into the future.

For applicants trying to choose where to book, the city-by-city differences are now large enough to shape travel planning. Someone needing a visitor visa interview sooner would find much shorter published waits in Chennai than in Mumbai, and shorter waits in Kolkata than in New Delhi’s upper range.

Student and work applicants face a different picture. In New Delhi, waits below 0.5 months place those categories far ahead of B1/B2 availability, and the same pattern holds in Chennai and Mumbai, where study and work lines remain shorter than the visitor queue.

That gap between categories points to the strain on tourism and business visitor appointments. While not every city shows the same level of congestion, the pattern across Indian posts is clear: B1/B2 demand is heavier, and the slowest posts are much slower than the fastest ones.

The U.S. Department of State remains the primary source for these figures through its Global Visa Wait Times page. Supplementary updates also draw on travel.state.gov, usvisas.state.gov and consulate-specific reports, but the published appointment data can change frequently.

Because of that, applicants are told to check real-time slots on official portals rather than rely on a static snapshot. Wait times can fluctuate with demand, and city-level estimates can shift as new appointments open or are taken.

That makes the February 13, 2026 update a guide rather than a fixed rule. It captures the broad ranking across Indian consulates — Chennai shortest, Mumbai longest, New Delhi and Hyderabad in the middle, Kolkata closer to the faster end — but the exact booking picture may move.

Even so, the latest data draw a sharp map of the Indian visa landscape. Chennai remains the quickest post for B1/B2 visitor interviews at 1.5 to 3.5 months, while Mumbai continues to post the longest waits at 9.5 months, with next appointments around 10 months.

For travelers, that difference can affect everything from holiday plans to meeting schedules. For students and workers, the figures offer a measure of relief, with shorter waits across F, M, J and H, L, O, P, Q categories than those facing most visitor applicants.

The contrast is starkest in New Delhi, where visitor waits reach 6.5 to 10 months while student and work appointments are listed at less than 0.5 months. Mumbai shows a similar divide, with visitor waits near 10 months but work visa waits at 1 month.

Chennai stands out not because it has no wait, but because its delay is much shorter than the rest of the country’s main visitor visa lines. Even its upper figure of 3.5 months leaves it well ahead of Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad on the latest data.

For now, applicants checking the B1/B2 visitor visa market in India are seeing a two-speed system. Chennai is the quickest path, Mumbai is the slowest, and the U.S. Department of State’s February 2026 figures show a booking gap wide enough to shape where and when many Indians try to secure an interview.