On October 21 the Bureau of Consular Affairs refreshed its online Global Visa Wait Times dashboard, providing applicants with both the next available appointment dates and newly added data on how long B-1/B-2 applicants actually waited for interviews in the previous month. The update shows significant disparities: while Amsterdam offers appointments in under two weeks, Calgary still records average waits of 11 months for visitor visas. The dashboard—updated monthly—now includes half-month granularity and clarifies that interview-waiver slots are not captured in the figures. Consular officials say the added transparency responds to Congressional pressure and helps travelers make informed decisions about where to apply, especially those eligible to interview in a third country. For global mobility programs, the data reaffirm the importance of early visa planning. Employers sending staff on short-notice trips should prioritize posts with sub-one-month availability or utilize visa-renewal interview waivers where possible. Companies are also encouraging talent to maintain valid U.S. visas even when not immediately needed, given lingering pandemic-era backlogs and periodic staffing pauses such as the worldwide training stand-down in August. The refreshed tool can be scraped to build internal dashboards that alert travel managers when wait times at a key post exceed corporate policy thresholds. Legal advisers caution that published "next available" dates can move quickly as embassies open new slots, so applicants should re-check portals frequently and be ready to reschedule. Consular Affairs officials note that additional measures—such as limited “paid expedite” pilots and regional processing hubs in Africa—remain under evaluation, with announcements expected before year-end.
Source: U.S. Department of State
