Following the Department of State’s (“DOS”) October 2022 update on its efforts to improve visa processing backlogs that resulted due to worldwide embassy closures throughout the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its commitment to lowering visa interview wait times, the United States Mission in India has expanded its services. Beginning January 21, 2023, the US Embassy in New Delhi and Consulates in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata have opened consular operations on Saturdays to accommodate first-time visa applicants who require in-person visa interviews. Additionally, the DOS has taken other steps to alleviate the backlog in visa processing resulting from the pandemic. Supplementary steps taken to relieve the backlogs in India include:

Implementation of remote processing of interview waiver cases for applicants with previous US visas;
Staffing the Embassy in Consulates in India with auxiliary consular officers from Washington and other embassies to increase processing capacity from January through March, 2023;
Increasing the number of consular officers permanently assigned to the Embassy and Consulates in India;
Releasing more than 250,000 additional B1/B2 visa appointments; and
Extending the weekday operating hours at the Embassy and Consulates in India to make space for additional appointments.

The announcement confirms that by this summer, the US Mission in India will be at full staffing, and processing visas at levels from prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is good news as currently, DOS is reporting almost a two-year wait time for visitors’ visas in India.