The US Embassy and five Consulates in Mexico will hold special Saturday interview days this weekend, on February 25, in an effort to reduce the wait times for first-time visa applicants.
The extended visa services to accommodate applicants who require a visa interview in person will be available this Saturday at the US Embassy in Mexico City as well as in Consulates in Hermosillo, Juarez, Ciudad, Matamoros, Tijuana, and Monterrey, VisaGuide.World reports.
According to the US Embassy and Consulates in Mexico, these efforts that the authorities are making are part of an initiative to address the backlog in visa processing. The same stressed that the Department of State is already remotely processing interview waiver cases for those who have had a US Visa before.
In order to increase the visa-processing capacity, dozens of temporary consular officers were sent to Mexico at the beginning of January 2023. Now that the US authorities aim to process visa applications as soon as possible, it has been pointed out that the Department of State is also increasing the number of permanent consular officers assigned to the US Embassy and Consulates in Mexico.
“Since November 2022, we have achieved a 32 percent reduction in wait times for a visitor visa interview in Mexico. We will continue to work hard to reduce this wait time further,” the statement of the US Embassy and Consulates in Mexico reads.
The visa processing capacity of the US Department was reduced profoundly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions imposed to halt its further spread. Back when strict Coronavirus restrictions were in place, many embassies and consulates, not only in Mexico but in other countries too, offered only emergency services, causing backlogs.
However, as soon as the travel restrictions got dropped, the US Embassy and Consulates in Mexico decided to facilitate travel and made decisions on more than 1,800,000 non-immigrant visas in 2022.
Commenting on the high number of visas issued last year and the decision to reduce the wait times for visa applications, the Minister Counselor for Consular and Consulate Affairs in Mexico, Daria Darnell, said that the authorities’ efforts are making a difference.
The same stressed that they are committed to processing visa applications as soon as possible.
“Our efforts to reduce visa appointment wait times are making a difference. We are processing visas faster than we did pre-pandemic and are committed to reducing this wait time as efficiently and quickly as possible,” Darnell stated.
Nationals of Mexico planning to enter the US for tourism purposes need to apply for the Visitor Visa – B2 Visa.
Those applying for this type of visa must submit Form DS-160, pay visa fees, schedule the visa interview, compile the B2 Visa document file, and attend the interview.
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