A new US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlights a severe staffing shortfall at American consulates in India, where just 68 non-immigrant-visa officers processed 1.46 million applications in FY 2025. That translates to an average caseload of 21,401 files per officer—the heaviest among large visa-processing countries and more than double the load in China. The immediate consequence is a weighted-average interview wait of 346 days for B-1/B-2 visitor visas, the longest of any major post surveyed. Business travellers are feeling the pinch: executives planning 2027 project roll-outs now must book interview slots nearly a year in advance, complicating mobility planning and sales pipelines. The GAO adds that visitor-visa waits in India have ballooned from 42 days in 2019, before the pandemic-era hiring freeze and attrition cut global non-immigrant officers from 1,342 to 904. To plug the gap, the State Department deployed roving “surge teams” to India and Mexico in 2023, but demand has continued to outstrip capacity. The GAO recommends making the annual global-staffing exercise mandatory; without it, posts such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad cannot make a data-driven case for more permanent slots in the consular-cone intake. For Indian corporates, the findings validate complaints that US travel is becoming a bottleneck for project kick-offs and client meetings. HR and mobility managers are advised to factor a minimum 12-month lead time into US assignment calendars and to pursue interview-waiver options aggressively for repeat travellers. Companies that cannot afford delays are exploring Canadian or EU hubs for regional leadership meetings and are diversifying into remote-first deployment models until staffing normalises.
Source: The Economic Times
