In the last fiscal year, the United States issued over 11 million visas, including 8.5 million visitor visas.
Yesterday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about the economic benefits of the tourism sector in the United States, including visas.
Blinken said the State Department’s work in issuing visas and passports to Americans does more than anything else to connect the world and the United States to the rest of the world.
“We want to make sure that people can travel for work, for education, for tourism, and do it legally, do it safely,” the Secretary of State said.
“Just over the last few years, we’ve made significant investments in strengthening our ability to deliver – deliver for the American people, deliver for people who want to come to the United States. And as a result of these efforts on visas and on passports, more people are traveling to the United States than ever before; more Americans are traveling the world than ever before,” Blinken said.
Regarding visas, Antony Blinken announced that in Fiscal Year 2024 (from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024), “we issued 11.5 million visas, and that’s a world record for us, breaking all previous records. Of these 8.5 million were visitor visas. That’s a 10 percent increase over the previous year.”
Target 1 million additional US visa appointments by 2025
The Secretary of State said that wait times for U.S. visas have decreased by nearly 60% since the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Today, the median wait time is under 60 days for a first-time-visitor visa interview,” Blinken said. And the country wants to keep up the momentum!
The United States aims to add 1 million additional visa appointments in Fiscal Year 2025. This will be a boon for future travelers, as the country prepares to host many major events, including sporting events.
Indeed, the United States will co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup with Canada and Mexico, the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Los Angeles, and the 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
“We’re doing everything we can to ramp up our capacity to make sure that everyone who’s coming to this country for these incredible events, as well as for so much else, get their visas in a timely way and a smooth way. And all of that I think you’ll see play out over the next couple of years,” enthuses Antony Blinken.
U.S. Travel Association “praises progress on visa processing”
In a press release, Geoff Freeman, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, the nonprofit organization that represents and advocates for all components of the American travel industry, welcomes the announced improvements to visa processing.
“We applaud the Biden administration for taking important steps to welcome international visitors. The United States will be a more competitive destination by adding one million visa appointments that will enable visa wait times of 90 days for the vast majority of visitors,” Freeman said.
He added that “the administration’s actions are in the best interest of our country and our economy, especially as we prepare to host World Cup games in 11 U.S. cities that will attract as many as 6 million international visitors to the United States, as well as other major upcoming events.”
Finally, Geoff Freeman notes that “the travel industry commends Secretaries Blinken and Raimondo and appreciates the tremendous efforts to make much-needed progress. As U.S. Travel has long stated, announcing a formal processing goal and prioritizing the reduction of visa wait times will allow the United States to be far more globally competitive for decades to come.”
