In the face of an unprecedented backlog of visa applications, the US Embassy in Dhaka has initiated some measures, including interview waivers for some categories, to reduce the wait time.
Presently, an applicant for a non-immigrant US visa has to wait for a minimum of 10 months for getting an appointment for a visa interview.
“We are making special efforts to conduct interviews of visa applicants as many as possible. Over the last six months, our consular staff members have worked weekends and have interviewed non-immigrant visa applicants on special work days, which we call super Friday,” Consul General of the US Embassy in Dhaka Nathan Flook told a media briefing on Wednesday.
“During these super Fridays, we have interviewed over 3400 non-immigrant visa applicants, including student and tourist visa applicants, and almost 600 immigrant visa applicants,” he added.
The consul general pointed out that the US Department of State has waived in-person interviews for several key visa categories, including for many students.
Consular Officers now have the discretion to waive the interview requirement for student visa applicants if the student was previously issued any type of visa and meets certain criteria.
He said renewal of non-immigrant visas in the same classification within 48 months of the expiration of the previous visa can be is allowed without an interview.
The consul general said this initiative has already reduced the waiting time for an interview appointment at many embassies and consulates.
However, he made it clear that visa consultants, commonly referred to as visa brokers, cannot guarantee visas though they take additional charge.
“Some non-immigrant visa applicants turn to visa consultants before scheduling their visa interviews. The visa consultant is not necessary and I want to say that again, a visa consultant is not necessary to obtain a visa interview appointment.”
Visa brokers often charge additional fees and provide inappropriate advice, like creating a fake document, he said adding that the best guidance for prospective visa applicants is to review the information on our website.
“We caution prospective applicants that presentation of false information or false documents may not only be a reason for a rejection of their visa application, but it could also become ineligibility to the United States in the future”.
About the appointment procedure he said, “Though some applicants do use a travel agency or consultant to book a non-immigrant visa appointment, there's no requirement to do so.”
“You can book appointments directly on our website. There is no additional cost to make an appointment because it's already included in the visa application fee.”
Talking about student visas, he mentioned that the US Embassy in Dhaka issued over 7,400 F-1 student visas in 2022. The figure is higher than any other year in the past decade.
“We will continue to try to prioritise interviews for as many qualified students as possible while also working to reduce the wait times for other visa categories such as the B1 or B2 tourist and business visa,” he said.
He said that the embassy’s priority will be to facilitate as many appointments as possible for first-time student visa applicants.
“Those applicants who may have been previously refused a visa should be prepared to provide the information that was not presented in their original interview, or demonstrate that their circumstances have changed significantly since that last interview,” he added.
If an applicant does decide to reapply, the individual must submit a new application form, pay the visa application fee again and make a new appointment.
He said those who have an urgent need to travel to the United States can consider requesting an emergency appointment after they've already booked a routine appointment.
“The instructions and the strict requirements for applying for an emergency appointment are available on our website”
