New US Visa rescheduling rule to reduce wait times for Indian travellers in 2025

Indian travellers planning to visit the United States will now have some good news to cheer up. As per the latest development, starting January 1, 2025, nonimmigrant US visa applicants will be allowed to reschedule their interview appointment once without incurring any additional fee. However, if an applicant misses the appointment or needs to reschedule a second time, they will be required to book a new appointment and repay the application fee, according to a statement from the US embassy.

Since postponing repeatedly can cause the process to drag on longer, the embassy advises candidates to carefully choose their appointment dates and show up on time. "Everyone will be able to schedule appointments more quickly and easily thanks to these developments. To maintain the system's effectiveness and equity for all, applicants are encouraged to show up for their appointments," the embassy continued.

Despite these measures, it remains unclear how significantly wait times will improve.

Increasing the number of visa appointment slots: In 2025, the US Government intends to create one million more slots. "We will add an additional one million visa appointments in the financial year 2025. That’s on top of the record number of appointments we had this past year,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Further reports add that 8.5 million of the 11.5 million visas that the US issued in 2024 were for visitors, a 10% increase over the year before.