Time to obtain an American visa hits record

The dream of traveling to the United States has never been so far out of reach for thousands of Brazilians. There are no economic reasons for this—the dollar has maintained some stability in recent years, and travel agencies confirm that demand has grown. The reason is of a different nature: the queue for obtaining a visa at consulates has stalled. Recently, the time to schedule an interview date and document presentation at diplomatic representations reached the highest level in history for those who have never been on American territory. In São Paulo, the waiting period is 556 days, equivalent to eighteen months. In Rio de Janeiro, it's 442 days (or fifteen months). With 438 days, Brasília is slightly better, but not by much.

The United States authorities attribute the bottleneck to the pandemic. "It is essential to remember that the problem does not occur only in Brazil," says Michael Whipple, advisor for consular affairs at the United States Embassy. "We are struggling to reduce waiting times." The commendable challenge is immense. Every day, at least 6,000 applications are processed by the diplomatic mission. In an attempt to normalize the process, the consulates hired more staff and created Saturday service hours, but the queues are only expected to start decreasing at the end of the first half of the year. "We want Brazilians to continue traveling to the United States," says Whipple. According to projections by American authorities, the number of Brazilian tourists in the country is expected to increase by 19% in 2023.

Still, many travel plans have been postponed. After the health crisis, which confined any expectation of traveling the world to the imagination, the couple Cristina Miguel and Ícaro Ramos, both 36 years old, finally put into practice the project of returning to Times Square in New York and watching a National Football League (NFL) game live. However, when accessing the American consulate's interview scheduling website in São Paulo, they discovered that securing another stamp in their passport would require patience: availability for the last stage of the process was only in September 2024. They then tried a new strategy. Even though they are residents of Franca, in the interior of São Paulo, they scheduled the interview far from home, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, where the waiting list is 406 days. "Our idea is to travel in the first half of 2024," Ramos explains.

The good news is that the chances of approval are high. Even ranking second among the countries that requested the most American visas in 2022, the rejection rate of Brazilians did not exceed 15%.

The waiting time for visa modalities not related to tourism is much shorter, not exceeding a week in some cases. However, an aggravating factor threatens to further overload consulate attendants. The first visas with ten years of validity began to be issued in 2010 and, therefore, started to expire in recent months. To avoid increasing queues, the embassy extended from twelve to 24 months the deadline to request the renewal of these permits without needing a new interview. Whipple, the spokesperson for the United States Embassy in Brazil, warns that many people who could be exempted from the conversation with consular agents are being directed to this stage by incorrectly filling out the system registration. With a bit more attention, the waiting time would be much shorter, and first-time applicants would be served more swiftly. It's a valuable tip for those who do not want to turn the dream of visiting the United States into a huge nightmare.

Source: Veja


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