It’s not the end of the the fiscal year yet, but the State Department just announced that the US Mission in China (Embassy Beijing, USCG Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang) has processed more than one million visa applications to date. US Mission Brazil is reportedly on track to become the third member of this very small club.
Consular Officers at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and our four consulates general in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang have processed more than one million visa applications to date in fiscal year 2012 while reducing the wait time for a visa interview appointment to approximately one week.
This extraordinary accomplishment represents visa processing growth of almost 43% over the same period last fiscal year, when we had processed just over 675,000 visa applications in China.
To achieve this, we increased staff, improved workflow, implemented a new pilot program waiving the in-person interview requirement in certain instances, and undertook other changes to our procedures – without compromising border security.
We are implementing permanent solutions to keep us ahead of the growing visa demand for years to come. During a June trip to China, the Department’s top consular official, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs, cut the ribbon on a reopened annex to our Embassy in Beijing, greatly increasing visa interview capacity.
China is not the only place where the State Department has achieved great success in meeting dramatic increases in visa demand. In Brazil, we have processed almost 44% more visa applications so far in FY 2012 than we did during the same period last year. In Mexico, we have processed 36% more visa applications. China and Mexico are the only two U.S. Missions that process more than one million visa applications each year, although Brazil is on track to become the third.
The accomplishments announced today reflect the Obama Administration’s commitment towards increasing U.S. jobs by encouraging more people to visit our country. For more information on the Obama Administration’s recent efforts to increase travel and tourism, please see http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/10/obama-administration-continues-efforts-increase-travel-and-tourism-unite.
The current wait time for NIV appointments across consular posts in China is between 2-3 days. In Mexico City, it is 24 days. Last month, USCG Guadalajara, Mexico made it as the top #8 consular post on wait time at 47 days (h/t to Consular Corner). In Brasilia, the wait time is one day.
In related news, applicants in the UAE complained of long wait to schedule visa appointments a year after the US consulate moved to a bigger facility in Bur Dubai that was supposed to make the process smoother (see Disgruntled residents call for speedier US visit visas). Abu Dhabi currently has a 36-day wait while Dubai has 28 days. That’s still way faster than Havana, currently the top post on wait time at 999 days.
Related article
- Visitors to United States find getting visas is taking less time (security.blogs.cnn.com)
Consular operations in Mexico never get any love. How much you want to be that U.S. consular sections in Mexico issued their 1 millionth visa of FY2012 a month ago and neither the White House nor the State Department said anything, because the American public for some bizarre reason thinks Chinese and Brazilians getting visas translate to more money being spent in the U.S. but visas to Mexicans engender negative images in the average AmCit’s mind. How many outside resources has the DOS sent to consular sections in Mexico vs. in Brazil? In fact, staff FROM consular sections in Mexico has been sent to help Brazil!
Sarah, I suspect that you are right but wanted to have some numbers. US Mission Mexico actually issued 1,315,116 nonimmigrant visas in FY2011. That’s just the issuance, which means the total visa applications are way higher. Unfortunately, Consular Affairs is shy about publishing the total number of visa applications including the refusals which in the case of Mexico would presumably be higher than the visa issuance.
I’ve looked online to see if I’ve missed any State Dept announcement about Mission Mexico hitting the million applications last fiscal year, but it does seem like there were no bells, whistles or fireworks when that milestone was reached. As to sending staff from Mexico to help Brazil — that’s a tad loony, shuffling the decks, to look good; work still needs to be done. Must be why there is a wait time in Mexico and there is almost none in China and Brazil.