US visa officers in India handle 21,401 applications each, as interview wait times stretch to 346 days

India’s US consular officers handled an average of 21,401 nonimmigrant visa applications each in fiscal year 2025, the highest workload among major visa-processing countries, according to a US Government Accountability Office report.

The staffing pressure has coincided with a sharp increase in interview waits. The weighted average wait to schedule a US nonimmigrant visa interview in India reached 346 days in FY25.

The US State Department received 1,455,255 nonimmigrant visa applications in India during the year. Only 68 consular officers were working on nonimmigrant visas.


By comparison, China had 119 officers handling 1.2 million applications, or 10,135 applications per officer. Brazil had 87 officers handling 1.14 million applications, while Mexico had 124 officers handling 2.66 million applications.

India also recorded the longest interview wait among the four countries examined by the GAO. The average wait was 283 days in Mexico, 34 days in China and 32 days in Brazil.

The wait for a visitor visa interview in India increased from 42 days in FY19 to 346 days in FY25. The GAO said the wait in India and Mexico was more than eight times longer than before the Covid-19 pandemic.

US consular officials told the GAO that inadequate staffing compared with demand was a major factor behind the long waits. Lower staffing levels limited the number of interviews that posts could conduct and contributed to backlogs.

The number of officers working on nonimmigrant visas worldwide fell from 1,342 in FY24 to 904 in FY25. State Department officials attributed the decline to a hiring freeze, a reduction in force and attrition.

The department sent more than 100 consular officers and locally employed staff on temporary assignments to countries including India and Mexico in FY23. However, the GAO said high demand continued to keep interview waits elevated.

The State Department also did not complete its global staffing exercise in FY24 and FY25. The exercise is meant to assess workloads and determine whether staff should be moved between posts.

The GAO recommended that the department establish a policy requiring it to conduct the exercise consistently.

The 346-day figure refers to the time taken to secure a visa interview. It does not represent the time taken to receive a final visa decision.