US plans to process one million more visas in 2025

Secretary of State, Antony Blinken said the State Department has made significant progress in improving visa processing times and volumes.

During fiscal year 2024 a record 11.5 million visas were issued, including 8.5 million tourist visas.

This was a 10% increase on the previous year.

Blinken said visa wait times have fallen by about 60% since the pandemic restart.

“We are going to continue all of this progress. We aim to add an additional one million visa appointments in in 2025. That’s on top of the record number of appointments that we had this past year.”

Blinken added that currently average visa wait times are now less than 60 days.

The expanded visa processing for 2025 was welcomed by tourism leaders.

“As U.S. Travel has long stated, prioritizing the reduction of visa wait times will allow the United States to be far more globally competitive for decades to come,” U.S. Travel Association CEO Geoff Freeman said.

“The administration’s actions are in the best interest of our economy, especially as we prepare to host World Cup games in 11 US cities that will attract as many as six million international visitors.”

In additional to expedited visa processing, US Department of State recently announced US nationals can renew their passports online.

This would reduce processing times to as little as one week.