HOW LONG WILL I HAVE TO TRAVEL TO THE U.S. ONCE THE IMMIGRANT VISA IS ISSUED?
Introduction
Immigrant and fiancé(e) visas are normally issued for the validity period of the medical examination, the maximum validity of which is six months. K3 & K4 visa holders are issued a visa valid for travel for two years. While the temporary nonimmigrant visas might take you up to a few weeks, or months at most, the immigrant visas can take years to get approved. It is not easy to give a definitive answer to how long an application takes to get reviewed, since the US government considers each applicant on a case-by-case basis, in the order that they are received. It can take a few weeks for an applicant that applies for i.e. a tourist visa, while it may take months for another to get a response for the same visa, because of his / her situation.
How long Does it take to get a US Visa?
The US visa processing time depends on the type of visa that you are applying for. It takes from 3 to 5 weeks for a US visa application to get processed. After the processing, the applicant can get a positive reply on their application, and the consulate will deliver the document. The delivery of the visa can take up to two other workdays.
Applications refused under Section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) pending additional processing, can take around 60 days from the date of the visa interview to be processed. In some certain cases, the processing might take more than 6 months.
Applicants who are required to apply for a waiver of ineligibility in order to get the visa, should keep in might that they will have to wait for 6 to 8 months from the date of their interview to get a reply.
Whereas, countries under the visa waiver program, applying through Electronic Travel Authorization System for short term visits, can get a reply in their ESTA application within 72 hours.
After USCIS approves your petition, they will transfer your case to the Department of State’s National Visa Center (NVC) for pre-processing. The first step in this processing is the creation of your case in our system. Once this is complete, we will send you a Welcome Letter by e-mail or physical mail. With the information in this letter, you can log in to our Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC) to check your status, receive messages, and manage your case.
Once you submit your fees, forms, and supporting documents to NVC, we will review your case to ensure you provided all the documentation required to schedule the immigrant visa interview. Interviews are based on the availability of appointments offered at the Embassy/Consulate.
To determine which cases NVC is currently reviewing, please refer to the NVC Timeframes page on the right navigation bar.
Number of Visas Each Year is Limited in Some Categories
United States law limits the number of immigrant visa numbers available each year in certain visa categories. This means that even if USCIS approves an immigrant visa petition for you, you may not get an immigrant visa number immediately. In addition, U.S. law also limits the number of visas available in certain categories by country. For limited categories, the availability of immigrant visa numbers depends on the date your petition was filed and the number of others waiting for the same visa category. The date your petition was filed is called your priority date.
Priority dates are posted monthly on the Visa Bulletin, which provides up-to-date priority dates for cases NVC is processing. Please note that while NVC attempts to contact all applicants when their visa number is available, you can also use the Department of State’s Visa Bulletin to check whether a visa is available for your petition. If a visa is available and NVC has not yet contacted you, please let us know by using our Public Inquiry Form.
Important Notice: Termination of Registration:
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) section 203(g) provides that the “Secretary of State shall terminate the registration (petition) of any alien who fails to apply for an immigrant visa within one year” of notice of visa availability. The petition may be reinstated if, within two years of notice of visa availability, the alien establishes that the “failure to apply was for reasons beyond the alien’s control.” Therefore, if you do not respond to notices from NVC within one year you risk termination of your petition under this section of law and would lose the benefits of that petition, such as your priority date.
It may take up to 2 weeks for applications to arrive by mail at a passport agency or center, and up to 2 weeks for you to receive a completed passport in the mail after we print it.
Consider the total time it will take to receive your passport when you are booking travel.
How to get your passport back after the visa approval
When you book a visa interview appointment, you can see a list of 33 passport/ visa pickup locations. You can select a convenient location for you. Once your visa is approved, Blue Dart will deliver the passport and visa to the address you specified when listing the courier service. You don’t have to pay any extra delivery charges as the service charges are already included in your visa application fee.
When your passport is ready for pick-up, you will receive confirmation through an email or SMS. If you have opted for one of the 22 Blue Dart Courier service locations, the passport will be delivered within 7 days; or if you have chosen to collect the passport from one of the 11 service centers, you have to pick up the passport within 14 days. If the passport is not collected within 14 calendar days from the selected location, the passport will be sent back to the respective Embassy or Consulate and you can pick it from there.
Note: Passports will not be delivered across the counters at the US Embassy or Consulate.
When will I get my passport after the visa interview?
It is not safe to tell the definite turnaround time. When you will get your passport back after the visa interview depends on various factors such as workload, holidays, etc. It takes around 2-3 calendar days after the interview to get the passport and visa delivered.
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