The United States Department of State will add one million visa appointments in 2025, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has said ahead of the US presidential election.
According to Blinken, the US State Department has made significant investments in visa and passport processing in the past few years, VisaGuide.World reports.
The US State Secretary said a record 11.5 million visas have been issued in fiscal year 2024, taking into account 8.5 million visitor visas, marking a ten percent increase over the previous year.
And we are going to continue all of this progress. We aim to add an additional 1 million visa appointments in fiscal year 2025. And that’s on top of the record number of appointments that we had this past year.
He said that visa wait times have also marked a decrease of about 60 percent since the pandemic, which, according to him, brought challenges for US embassies and consulates worldwide to issue visas.
Blinken said that currently, the median wait time for visas is below 60 days for a first-time visitor’s visa interview.
US Travel Association Applauds Recent Announcement
The US Travel Association CEO, Geoff Freeman, told Travel Weekly that announcing a formal processing goal and making the reduction of visa wait times among top priorities will permit the US to be far more globally competitive for decades to come.
Freeman said that by adding one million visa appointments, the US will be a more competitive destination, which will enable visa wait times of days for the majority of foreign travelers.
The administration’s actions are in the best interest of our country and our economy, especially as we prepare to host World Cup games in 11 US cities that will attract as many as 6 million international visitors to the United States, as well as other major upcoming events.
According to the US State Secretary, the increase in appointments will also facilitate the travel process to the US ahead of major sports events, including the Olympics and Paralympic, and the FIFA World Cup, among others.
Accelerated Passport Renewal Process
In September 2024, the US Department of State announced that US nationals would be eligible to renew their passports online instead of printing a paper application and “mailing it with a check.”
In this regard, the United States Department of State, Antony Blinken, said that with the launching of online passport renewal last month, processing time has shortened to just a week.
According to him, already more than a million US citizens have taken advantage of online passport renewal.