Hyderabad Techie Shocked by Lengthy US Visa Interview Wait Time, Gets 470 Days

A tech professional from Hyderabad recently took to social media to express his surprise and frustration after receiving a staggering 470-day wait time for a US visa interview. Amit Bhawani, the techie, was trying to book an interview slot for a friend when he discovered that the wait time stretched to over a year—about 1.2 years to be exact.

Bhawani shared his disbelief online, especially after learning that some people managed to secure earlier interview slots by using agents. He expressed his frustration, stating, "How is it possible that others I know were able to get earlier slots through agents?"

In a later update, Bhawani informed his followers that he had finally succeeded in booking a US visa interview slot, and the appointment was scheduled for August. He was quick to note that he did not rely on any "Chrome extensions, scripts, bots, or agents" to secure the appointment. After many attempts and persistent efforts, he was finally successful, even humorously mentioning that he might need a new mouse after all the clicking.

In the comments section of his post, Bhawani revealed that he started trying to book the appointment around 11 PM and eventually found two available slots in Mumbai and Delhi. When asked by a user if he used any specific tricks to get the slots, Bhawani replied that he simply kept "refreshing" the page and limited his search to Hyderabad, Delhi, and Mumbai, avoiding other locations like Kolkata and Chennai.

The online community had various reactions to his post:

• One user noted, "Agents are charging 30k for early appointments."
• Another shared their experience, "I applied for B1B2 in March 2022 and got a date in September 2024. You’re still lucky."
• A third individual commented, "One of my office colleagues recently paid 50k per person for a US visa—appointment in 1.5 months. Such is the extent of the system manipulation."
• Another user recounted, "My friend and his family applied for a US visa in 2022 for her sister's graduation. They got the interview call this year, but she graduated two years ago and is now working in Australia."
• Yet another internet user said, "I booked for myself and got a next-day slot, though I rescheduled it to a month later as it suited me better. You just have to keep an eye on the slots, I think agents do the same."
• A final user chimed in, "There’s not much you can do except keep monitoring. Sometimes, canceled slots or new ones open up unexpectedly. You just need to get the timing right and have your details ready."