Queue for US visa renewal in São Paulo drops to 1 month

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The waiting time to appear at the consulate in São Paulo for the renewal of the tourist visa in the USA has dropped to about a month, the US State Department informed UOL. In early November, still according to the country’s authorities, the queue was 8 months.

Waiting times for some visa categories, at different consulates, can be seen on the agency’s website.

“We emphasize, however, that the system is very agile and that the site presents a photograph of the moment, which may present differences in relation to the scheduling”, adds the State Department.

During the pandemic, the US stopped issuing non-emergency entry permits to foreign nationals. However, since the country —one of the favorite destinations for Brazilians— reopened its borders for tourism in November 2021, the huge demand from interested travelers has accumulated with requests for the document that had already been made, but not answered, which created long waits for the B1/B2 visa for tourism.

This type of visa is precisely the most requested by Brazilian citizens and corresponds to 90% of all entry requests to the US government. Of these, 40% are renovations. The State Department also informed that the consulate of São Paulo is the third post that issues visas the most in the world.

In the last two months, the agency’s operation in the capital of São Paulo has tripled to meet requests after the American authorities carried out a “consular sector task force”, with seven new employees and technological innovations to try to reduce queues.

Queues in other parts of Brazil

At the consulate in Recife, the queue for renewing the tourist document is 65 days. In Porto Alegre, the wait is 56 days. Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro compete for the fastest scenario today: it takes 20 days for service in the federal capital and 23 days at the carioca post.

However, those who need to issue a visa and not renew it find much longer queues in all cities — in none the waiting period is less than 11 months.

first-time visa

In São Paulo, the tourist needs to wait 491 days (one year and four months) to carry out the interview at the consulate that will determine whether the application for a visa will be approved or not. In Rio, the commitment takes 437 days – or about a year and two and a half months.

Brasilia ranks third in the long waits for the interview: 399 days, one year and one month are needed. In Porto Alegre, the period is 352 days (11 months and three weeks) and, in Recife, it is 332 days, about 11 months.

Brazilians are the fifth most visited tourist in the world worldwide, according to the State Department, behind only the British, Indians, Germans and French.

Visas from other categories, such as study or work, have a much shorter queue – with a wait of between 2 and 15 days.

Why are renewals faster?

The process is more agile because, currently, the Department of State does not require an interview at the embassy or consulate for those who want to renew their visa. The schedule, therefore, is scheduled for the delivery of documents at the Visa Applicant Service Center (Casv).

Returning the passport with the document after this procedure, however, may take a few weeks. Therefore, it is necessary to plan before booking the trip.

Applications for B1/B2 visas in which there is a previous visa expired for up to 48 months are considered renewals. In 2022, the US embassy and consulates in Brazil issued more than 825,000 tourist visas.

The State Department also announced the hiring of another 13 consular officers who should arrive by the middle of 2023. “We also hope to reduce the waiting time for scheduling new visas”, commented the agency in a note.

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