A new audit from the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has laid bare the scale of the non-immigrant-visa backlog confronting Indian travellers. According to the report, just 68 US consular officers processed 1.46 million applications in fiscal year 2025—an average caseload of 21,401 per officer, the highest among major visa-issuing posts worldwide. The crush of demand pushed India’s weighted average wait to schedule a visa interview to a staggering 346 days, more than eight times the pre-pandemic norm of 42 days and the longest delay among the four comparison countries (Mexico, China and Brazil). Visa-class data show business and visitor (B-1/B-2) applicants bear the brunt, with many corporate travellers now forced to plan US trips nearly a year in advance or reroute meetings online. The GAO attributes the logjam chiefly to staffing shortages—global non-immigrant-visa officers fell by a third between FY 2024 and FY 2025—as well as to lingering pandemic-era backlogs and a hiring freeze inside the State Department. The audit’s findings have immediate commercial implications for Indian firms. Delayed B-1/B-2 and L-1 appointments are undermining client-facing visits, compliance audits and project kick-offs, while export-oriented SMEs complain that year-long waits erode the competitive edge of in-person relationship building in the United States. Technology services majors say they increasingly rely on Mexico or Canada for near-shore project meetings to avoid interview bottlenecks in India. Travel managers are advising executives to apply 10–12 months ahead and to monitor pop-up appointments through real-time slot-tracking tools. The GAO urged the State Department to institutionalise its long-delayed global staffing exercise so that high-demand posts like India receive faster surge support. Meanwhile, Washington has announced short-term measures—temporary duty officers and weekend interview drives—but these have not materially shortened queues. Indian industry bodies such as NASSCOM and CII reiterated calls for a dedicated business-mobility corridor similar to the UK’s Priority Visa channel. For now, companies must budget for longer lead times, build visa-contingency clauses into contracts and explore alternatives such as Canada’s new Tech Talent Strategy or the UAE’s five-year Multiple-Entry Visa for client interaction. The GAO’s report makes clear that without sustained staffing fixes, India-US business mobility will remain a chokepoint well into 2027.
Source: The Economic Times
