(INDIA) — The U.S. Department of State published new data on January 14, 2026 showing wide gaps in Visa interview wait times across its four consulates in India, pushing applicants to chase faster appointments and prompting what travel firms describe as “visa arbitrage.”
The figures, released as part of the State Department’s monthly Global Visa Wait Times update, show that while national averages for visitor visas (B1/B2) hover between 60–75 days, actual waits can vary by as much as seven months depending on the city and the visa category.
Applicants and employers have increasingly treated appointment location as a tactical choice, shifting plans and travel to match the fastest consulate, even when it is far from home. For many, the stakes are immediate: missed start dates, disrupted travel, and stalled work-authorisation timelines that hinge on consular processing.
State Department framing and guidance
In its January 14, 2026 update, the U.S. Department of State framed the changes in the context of security screening and appointment management. “The Department of State is committed to protecting our nation and its citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process. We update visa wait time information monthly. Our embassies and consulates release additional appointment slots regularly.”
That same push for tighter scrutiny has reshaped how applicants plan for interviews, particularly in high-volume categories in India. The data released this week put hard numbers on what many applicants have been seeing in the booking system for months: a single country can have sharply different queues depending on where the interview is scheduled.
Mission India rescheduling notice
The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, describing rescheduling tied to new vetting protocols, warned applicants not to appear on previously booked dates if they received a rescheduling notice. “If you have received an email advising that your visa appointment has been rescheduled, Mission India looks forward to assisting you on your new appointment date. Arriving on your previously scheduled appointment date will result in your being denied admittance.”
Wait-time differences by post (visitor visas B1/B2)
As of January 17, 2026, visitor (B1/B2) wait times show the largest spread among the main posts. The published averages demonstrate substantial variation across India.
- New Delhi: 8 Months
- Mumbai: 7 Months
- Hyderabad: 4 Months
- Chennai: ~1.5 Months
Chennai’s shorter average came with its own complication. The State Department data noted that Chennai “often shows the shortest average wait but frequently lacks ‘next available’ slots,” leaving applicants to watch for cancellations and newly released times.
Work and student visa category waits
Work visa categories also varied, with uneven reporting by post. New Delhi showed “No dates published” for Work (H, L, O), while other posts reported shorter waits.
- New Delhi (Work H, L, O): No dates published
- Mumbai (Work): 1 Month
- Hyderabad (Work): 2.5 Months
- Chennai (Work): Variable
Student categories were shorter overall but still differed by city. The reported waits were:
- New Delhi (Student F, M, J): 1 Month
- Mumbai (Student): 3 Months
- Hyderabad (Student): 2 Months
- Chennai (Student): 2 Months
How applicants and employers are responding
Those constraints have heightened the appeal of scheduling wherever an appointment exists, even if it requires cross-country travel in India. The spread between 8 Months in New Delhi and ~1.5 Months in Chennai for B1/B2 has become a central driver of applicants changing cities, travel agents and companies said.
Employers have responded by shifting where they send staff for consular interviews, especially in categories where a shorter posted wait can translate into faster return-to-work schedules. Companies are now routing intra-company transferees (L-1) through Mumbai, described as “the current leader in work-visa speed,” regardless of where the employee resides.
Travel-management firms in India have also reported a surge in “slot-sniping” services, as applicants attempt to secure earlier appointments and then travel to the consulate city that offers the soonest date. Applicants are described as flying across the country to secure earlier appointments in cities like Kolkata or Hyderabad.
Policy changes affecting scheduling and screening
At the same time, new rules and proclamations have altered the practical cost of rescheduling and the amount of information applicants must keep ready before they appear. Together, those changes have increased the penalty for missed appointments and expanded the scope of screening for some categories, including H-1B and H-4.
One change affecting H-1B and H-4 applicants took effect Dec 15, 2025, when the State Department expanded its “online presence review” to include those categories. The guidance instructs such applicants to set their social media profiles (X, Facebook, Instagram) to “Public” to facilitate identity verification.
Another shift that shapes behaviour is the rescheduling restriction effective Jan 1, 2025. Applicants are permitted only one free reschedule, and any later change or a missed appointment requires a new application and the repayment of the visa fee.
Those constraints have heightened the appeal of scheduling wherever an appointment exists, even if it requires cross-country travel. With only one free reschedule permitted, a cancelled trip, missed train, or rescheduled interview can carry direct financial consequences because later changes require a new application and fee repayment.
Other U.S. policy moves and effects
A separate U.S. policy move took effect Jan 1, 2026, when Presidential Proclamation 10998 limited visa issuance for 39 countries due to security concerns. The data set notes that India is not on the full ban list, but applicants face “heightened public-charge questioning” and stricter vetting of financial self-sufficiency.
While the State Department data does not quantify how many Indian applicants are affected by additional questioning, the policy changes have become part of how applicants prepare documents and timelines ahead of interviews.
A further change is due to take effect Jan 21, 2026, when the United States will pause issuing immigrant visas to nationals of 75 countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, deemed a “high risk of public-benefits usage.” India is not listed as banned in the data, but the same material says stricter scrutiny is expected.
Operational impact and timing
The State Department’s guidance and the wait-time tables have landed in a period when travellers routinely plan around interview dates, particularly for “stamping” trips to India by workers returning to the United States. The expansion of social media screening in mid-December 2025 is described as pushing thousands of appointments from December into Q1 2026, stranding many H-1B professionals who travelled for holiday-season processing.
The State Department publishes the appointment data on its Global Visa Wait Times page, which it updates monthly. The department also said embassies and consulates release additional slots regularly, a detail applicants track closely because “next available” availability can change quickly.
The State Department’s warning from Mission India about rescheduled appointments has also put more pressure on applicants to follow email notices carefully. The embassy guidance said appearing on the original date after receiving a rescheduling email would result in denial of admittance, influencing how travellers time trips and hotel bookings.
Other agency actions
Beyond the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security pointed to its own steps intended to reduce processing backlogs in a different category. On January 14, 2026, DHS announced an interim final rule focused on religious workers (R-1).
“DHS has issued an interim final rule to religious organizations. allowing thousands of religious workers—including priests, nuns, and rabbis—to resume their essential services.” DHS did not tie that announcement to any specific city-by-city scheduling changes in India, but it placed the rule in the context of reducing wait times in that category.
The announcement appeared alongside other U.S. immigration updates that applicants often track through federal channels, including the USCIS Newsroom.
Broader implications
The sharp variation among Indian consulates also reflects a broader reality of consular processing: applicants are responding not just to published averages, but to the day-to-day unpredictability of what the booking system shows.
Chennai’s combination of a ~1.5 Months B1/B2 average and frequent lack of “next available” slots captures that tension, where a shorter posted wait does not always mean an easy-to-book appointment.
Taken together, the January 14 data and the policy changes that took effect over the past year have made timing and location a bigger part of the U.S. visa process for Indian applicants. For some, the question is no longer only which visa category to apply under, but where to apply, and how much uncertainty they can absorb if the next available appointment disappears.
New Data Show Large Gaps in US Visa Wait Times Across India
The U.S. State Department’s January 2026 update reveals dramatic variations in visa wait times at Indian consulates, ranging from 1.5 to 8 months. These disparities are forcing applicants into tactical travel decisions and ‘slot-sniping’ to avoid long delays. Simultaneously, new security measures, including social media vetting and restricted rescheduling policies, have increased the stakes for applicants, making the location and timing of interviews more critical than ever.
