This summer the U.S. State Department started a pilot program at U.S. embassies in Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico for expedited visitor visa interview appointments. (Visitor visas are the B-1 category for business and B-2 for tourism.) Visa applicants must pay the base application fee of $185 and an expedited fee of $750 to move up an existing interview or schedule a new one. If the consular office has availability, the appointment will be within 10 business days. The visa application portal will show expedited appointment slots if they are available. This new option relates only to the timing of the appointment and has no impact on the substantive review of the visa application. The pilot program is scheduled to run through December 31, 2026. The State Department may add additional locations during or after the pilot program.
Visitor visa interview slots long have been backlogged and worsened during the pandemic. Wait times of a year or more can be common. Although this new expedited option might be attractive for some business travelers, it will be cost-prohibitive for many individuals who simply want to visit family members in the United States. Moreover, the historically high denial rates for visitor visa applications could mean bad news sooner rather than later. A systemic improvement of the entire visa application process would be a better solution than a costly patch to one visa category.