USA extends interview visa waivers for some students to end of 2023

At the end of 2021, the US Department of State announced the authority for consular officers to waive in-person interviews for eligible applicants until the end of 2022 as a temporary measure to help ease visa backlogs following the Covid-19 pandemic.

On December 23 2022, the Department of State confirmed that this authority has now been extended until December 31 2023.

Under the visa waiver rules, applicants for F and M student visas and for academic J visas who have previously been approved for a non-immigrant visa to the USA and who have “no apparent ineligibility” may be eligible for an interview waiver.

However, NAFSA Association of International Educators  has highlighted to members that the Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual states that the waiver is not applicable to nationals of China and Nigeria.

In addition, first-time F, M and academic J visa applicants who are citizens of one of the 40 countries in the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP) may be eligible for an interview waiver. VWP participants include most European countries, Chile, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

The authorisation to waive in-person interviews for applicants renewing a visa in the same classification within 48 months of the previous visa’s expiration was previously authorised by the Department of State to remain in place until further notice.

At the EnglishUSA  Stakeholders’ Conference in October, a representative from the Department of State gave an indication that the interview waiver scheme for students would likely be extended, and said that it had been a particular success in certain consular posts, including Tokyo where 50 per cent of visa applications utilised the waiver.

In September last year, a group of industry associations and stakeholders, including the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, NAFSA Association of International Educators, the Council of Graduate Schools and ETS, the administrators of the TOEIC and TOEFL exams, called for the interview waiver concession to be made permanent.

In a statement confirming the latest extension, the US government said, “The Department of State recognizes the positive impact of travel to the United States by foreign student and temporary work visa holders on the US economy and is committed to facilitating nonimmigrant travel and further reducing visa wait times. We are pleased to announce that the Secretary of State has made a determination extending the authority of consular officers to waive in-person interviews for certain nonimmigrant visa categories through December 31, 2023.”