Fresh Department of State data analysed by PlainVisa on 13 June reveal that petition-based worker-visa applicants in cities such as Hyderabad, Vancouver and Ho Chi Minh City still face appointment waits longer than a year, despite consular staffing increases. The tracker synthesises the monthly Global Visa Wait Times report, converting State’s day ranges into months for clearer comparison. The longest wait—Hyderabad’s 7.5 months for F/M/J study visas—underscores why the new US$750 premium-appointment pilot is likely to find a ready market among both tourists and business travellers. Companies relocating talent to the United States should build several extra months into deployment timelines or consider “consular shopping” in third-country posts with shorter queues. Where possible, filing for stateside change-of-status rather than consular processing can also sidestep interview bottlenecks, although employees then need advance-parole documents for travel. State Department officials say they have reduced the global median wait to 30 days, but acknowledge that demand remains “extraordinary” at a subset of high-volume posts—a gap the premium pilot aims to test. Mobility teams should monitor whether the fee reduces backlogs or merely adds a parallel fast lane for those who can pay.
Source: PlainVisa
