The United States embassy in India said its consular team was cancelling about 2,000 visa appointments allegedly booked by bots and said such practices violated its scheduling policies.
In a post on X, the US embassy said, “Consular Team India identified bad actors who made about 2,000 visa appointments that violated our scheduling policies.”
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“Effective immediately, we are cancelling these appointments and suspending the associated accounts’ scheduling privileges,” the embassy said.
“We will continue our anti-fraud efforts. We have zero tolerance for fraud,” it added.
US visa April 2025 bulletin
As reported by HT, the April 2025 Visa Bulletin released by the US State Department showed significant retrogression in certain employment-based visa categories, particularly for India and China in the EB-5 Unreserved category. This means that applicants will face longer wait times, which can indirectly lead to an increased demand for interview slots.
Some travel agents are notorious for using bots to block appointment dates in India, making it difficult for individual applicants to book a slot on their own.
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A person who wished to remain anonymous told the Times of India that the waiting time for B1/B2 categories is over six months but could be reduced to one month or less by paying ₹30-35,000 to a travel agent.
“We tried to get a visa interview date on our own for our child, who had to join an American university last fall, but nothing was available in the timeframe to do so. We paid an agent ₹30,000 and got the same in time,” the person said.
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US Visa categories
The US issues visas under the temporary (non-immigrant) and immigrant (permanent) categories.
The non-immigrant category allows foreign nationals to enter the US for a limited period and for specific purposes such as tourism, business, study, or temporary work. The highly sought-after H-1B visa by Indian working professionals falls under this category.
Immigrant visas lead to a Green Card (lawful permanent residency), allowing holders to live and work in the US indefinitely.