The U.S. State Department has updated its visa appointment wait times recently. The interview waiver option, widely known as the “Dropbox” facility is no longer available for most categories, including temporary work visas and F-1 student visas. This rollback affects a wide range of travelers who previously relied on the faster, paperwork-only process.
According to the BAL U.S. Practice Group, New Delhi has sharply reduced its next available appointment wait times for F, M, and J visas, bringing them down from about two months to roughly half a month.
But Shanghai’s wait times for H, L, O, P, and Q visa appointments have surged, rising from under half a month to around three months compared with the figures reported in October’s global update.
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Chennai (Madras) recorded a significant shift in interview-required B-1/B-2 timelines, with average wait times moving from five months to “N/A”, while the next available interview-required appointments shortened from a five-month wait to three months compared with October.
New Delhi also saw its B-1/B-2 interview-required wait times improve, dropping from 6.5 months to 3.5 months over the same period.
The cities with the longest wait times for B-1/B-2 interview-required visas are Toronto at 16.5 months, San Jose at 13 months, Lagos at 12.5 months, Merida at 11.5 months and Ottawa at 11 months. Even though most petition-based work visas that require interviews fall within a wait-window of under half a month to about three months, a few locations remain notable exceptions, according to the BAL U.S. Practice Group.
Overall, the latest global wait times in major visa-issuing cities show little movement. For work visas (H, L, O, P, Q) and student or exchange visitor categories (F, M, J), the next available interview dates have largely held steady compared to the previous month across the key cities being tracked.
According to the U.S. State Department’s monthly updates, reported wait times show the average duration for non-immigrant visa interviews and an estimate for the next available visitor visa appointment. These averages, however, do not guarantee that any individual applicant will secure an appointment within that timeframe.
U.S. embassies and consulates often open additional appointment slots, so new dates can become available regularly. The State Department counts months in 30-day increments and half months in 15-day increments, including weekends and holidays when embassies are closed. Once you’ve booked your interview, you can monitor the scheduling system and reschedule to an earlier slot if one opens up.