The US Department of State has recently updated the interview waiver requirements for Indian and Bhutanese applicants.
As of the date of this publication, no formal announcement has been made by the DOS, but the eligibility criteria on the US Travel Docs website has changed as of February 18, 2025. Changes to the program include:
- The applicant must have a previous US visa in the same classas the visa they wish to apply for; and
- The prior visa in the same visa class must still be valid or have expired within the last 12 months.
Note: Please allow up to three weeks for interview waiver processing, counted from the time that the passport is dropped off at the Visa Application Center until you are notified the passport is ready for pickup or delivered to you. Please plan carefully as you will not be able to pick up your passport during this time and this process cannot be expedited under any circumstances.
Full eligibility criteria can be found here.
