Persistence pays off for US visa seekers trying for early dates

AHMEDABAD: Jay Prajapati's plan to travel to the US with his wife and mother hit a roadblock when he got an appointment for a visa only in January 2024! The Prajapatis were trying to get a visa interview date in 2019.
Before finally putting this dream in cold storage, Jay decided to give it one last shot by trying multiple times daily for a week. The persistence paid off as he recently got a March 17 date.
"If all goes well, I will be able to take my family to the US to visit my maternal cousin.After hearing news that the US consulate is working to ease the visa appointment delays, I decided to make a committed effort and it paid off," says a happy Prajapati. The US dream is not distant any more, at least for some lucky Gujaratis. As US consulate officials promise to ease the visa process to cut down months and sometimes years-long queues, there are some who have got dates for US visa appointments in the next few weeks and even days!
Applicants getting visa dates in Feb, March too
Maitreya Kale, a MBBS final year student of NHL Municipal Medical, is another such Amdavadi who got lucky with the visa date. Wanting to go abroad to pursue his medical elective subject training in October 2023, he was crestfallen when the latest date he got was in May 2024.
"Recently, I applied again and got a February 6 appointment date. A number of my fellow MBBS colleagues have also got early dates which takes us nearer to our dream," Kale said.
Travel agents said that US visa dates queues are easing off as some, if not all, aspirants are getting lucky and getting dates closer to their travel plans. Foreign visa consultant Bharat Patel said that while earlier people were getting appointment dates only in 2024 and even 2025, people are now getting travel visa dates in February and March too.
"There is a ray of hope for people wanting to travel to the US to attend social events and personally important events like convocations of their only children. The number of people getting appointments within days and weeks is still 2-5% but it is a significant sign of the problem being addressed," said Patel.
Sameer Yadav, another foreign visa consultant, said that some 15-20 of his clients could reschedule their US visa appointment dates earlier. "Couple Ravi and Nitu Suri wanted to attend the convocation of their daughter who is pursuing masters in engineering in the US. The convocation is slated for May 2023 but they have a January 2024 visa interview date. The couple was upset but when we tried getting early dates, they recently got an appointment for February 17," Yadav shared.