The State Department has indefinitely extended a program that gives consular offices the discretion to waive in-person interviews for low-risk nonimmigrant visa applicants who are applying within 48 months of their most recent visa's expiration.
The program had been set to sunset at the end of the year, but will now remain in effect without a sunset date, subject to regular review.
The program will apply to consular offices worldwide. The State Department estimates that under the rules of the updated program, the pool of applicants eligible for an interview waiver will at least double.
"Over the past several years, the ability to waive the in-person interview requirement for certain applicants transformed the Department of State's ability to efficiently and securely process nonimmigrant visa applications," the State Department said. "From October 2022 through September 2023 the Department of State issued a near record number of visas -- more than 10.4 million nonimmigrant visas globally -- due in part to interview waiver authority."
The extension is a win for the U.S. Travel Association, which wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas last month lobbying for it.
Visa wait times averaged 130 days during the State Department's fiscal 2023, which ended in October. That was down from post-pandemic highs but still much longer than 30-day maximum that was achieved during the Obama administration. U.S. Travel says visa interview wait times still average more than 400 days in some source markets.
The trade group said that failing to extend the waiver authority would have significantly increased wait times for 40% of visa applicants, costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars in lost traveler spending.
"By extending the visa waiver authority, the Biden administration prevented a loss of 64 million visitors and $215 billion in spending over the next 10 years," U.S. Travel said. "In 2024 alone, the U.S. will retain an additional 2.2 million visitors and $5.9 billion in traveler spending that would have been lost without the extension."