The United States Mission to Pakistan on Tuesday said it was taking measures to bring down the visa appointment wait time for Pakistanis while the demand for US visas was the highest it had ever been.
“More than 10,000 Pakistani visa applicants originally scheduled for 2024 at the US Consulate General in Karachi are now receiving notices that their appointments have been rescheduled in 2023, some as early as next week,” the US embassy in Islamabad said in a statement, adding that it was expediting thousands of non-immigrant visa appointments as the first measure to meet “unprecedented demand”.
Jayne Howell, the head of US visa operations in Pakistan, said the move would reduce wait time by three to six months.
The US Mission advised applicants that if they had a visa appointment in the next few months at the US Consulate General in Karachi, they could check their e-mails and log in to their accounts at the embassy’s website to confirm their expedited appointment time.
Moreover, it said to create added flexibility for Pakistani travellers, visa applicants could rebook appointments, at either the Consulate General in Karachi or the US Embassy in Islamabad.
The embassy hoped that this would allow applicants “more freedom and flexibility to find a convenient date, time and location”.
