Canadian residents who need a visa to visit the United States face some of the longest wait times in the world.
A CBC News analysis of appointment wait times to obtain a US tourist visa found that while countries like India and Mexico have seen wait times improve since November 2022, wait times in Canada have worsened.
Six of the top 10 longest wait times in the world were recorded at U.S. embassies and consulates in Canada that accept visa appointments.
Currently, those applying for a B1/B2 visitor visa appointment in Ottawa or Quebec City face the longest wait time in the world – 850 days. Halifax follows closely behind at 840 days, and Calgary at 839 days. It takes 753 days to get a visa appointment in Toronto and 731 days in Vancouver.
Wait times vary from day to day: earlier this month, Toronto’s wait time was the longest in the world at 900 days.
Other locations currently with the longest wait times are Istanbul, Turkey (774 days), Bogota, Colombia (677 days), Guatemala City, Guatemala (645 days), and Hermosillo, Mexico (576 days).
American lawyer Greg Booth explains why Canadians’ applications for visas to visit the US are being backlogged.
In November 2022, Toronto ranked 23rd in the world with an average wait time of 464 days, followed by Calgary in 30th place at 371 days.
In 2022, the global average wait time was 167 days, while the average wait time for Canadian residents was 345 days. Currently, the global average wait time for a U.S. visitor visa appointment is 151 days, while the average wait time for Canadian residents has ballooned to 810 days.
US warns of scams targeting visa applicants
Wait times have become so long that U.S. officials are warning that scammers are preying on Canadian residents by promising faster appointments in exchange for money.
India and Mexico topped the list of average wait times in 2022, at 972 and 622 days respectively, but now have to wait just over a year, while applicants from China have to wait 40 days for a visa interview.
Wait times have been reduced at 109 locations around the world, and increased at 84 locations, including all six locations in Canada that offer visa appointments.
US embassy officials declined CBC News’ request for an interview but blamed the long wait times on increased demand.
“Across Canada, embassy and consulate teams are processing record numbers of visas,” the embassy said in a media statement. “In 2023, U.S. embassies and consulates in Canada issued more than 230,000 non-immigrant visas, the most ever.”
The embassy declined to disclose the number of applications it has received from Canadian residents in recent years or say whether security checks are affecting wait times.
The embassy said it is committed to reducing wait times and has launched a program that allows applicants to reschedule their existing appointments to an earlier date at no additional charge. Wait times posted on the U.S. State Department’s website reflect the first appointments currently available.
“Most applicants will be interviewed within 12 months of booking their appointment,” the embassy wrote. “Applicants with urgent travel needs who meet certain criteria, including urgent business, humanitarian or medical criteria, may request an expedited interview at any time.”
The State Department said in a January update that its goal is to reduce interview wait times to less than 90 days for 90 percent of expatriates by 2024.
While Canadian citizens do not need a visa to visit the United States, that is not the case for millions of other people who live in Canada, including permanent residents, students, temporary workers, etc. According to Statistics Canada’s 2021 census, there are 3.1 million non-citizen Canadian residents in Canada, of which 2.2 million are permanent residents.
If a Canadian resident is coming from one of the 41 countries for which the United States has waived visa requirements, such as Australia, Israel and many European countries, all they need to do is fill out an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) application.
However, Canadian residents from countries that do not have visa waiver agreements with the United States, such as India, China, Mexico and many African and South American countries, must apply for a B1/B2 visa.
In February 2023, six U.S. senators sent a letter to the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs complaining that it takes an average of 25 weeks around the world to get an appointment for a U.S. tourist visa.
“These delays impact industries, businesses, universities, and families across the United States,” the senators wrote. “Businesses that rely on tourism suffer when potential customers cannot make timely visa appointments.”
The U.S. Travel Association has been lobbying the U.S. government to shorten wait times for visa interviews, describing them as “excessive,” saying they have a chilling effect on tourism to the United States.
“Excessive wait times will seriously undermine the United States’ international competitiveness and the Biden administration’s national goal for the number of foreign visitors to Japan,” the association said in a statement. “The State Department must continue to do everything in its power to resolve this serious issue.”
The association is at a loss to explain why wait times for people living in the United States’ closest neighbor are among the longest in the world.
U.S. immigration lawyer Greg Booth said the long wait times for Canadian residents were due to a State Department shortage and an increase in the number of applications.
“Consulates are always understaffed,” said Booth, who works at Cascadia Cross Border Law in Bellingham, Wash. “In my career, we’ve never been understaffed.”
Booth said the consulate is working to clear a backlog of cases that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
“They started processing family visas first and got those processed,” Booth said, “and then they started processing business visas. It took a long time to process that backlog. But then they had a huge backlog of tourist visas and B1/B2 visas that weren’t being processed.”
Booth said recent immigration to Canada is also a factor.
“The people that the Canadian government accepts, and many of the people that come to Canada with refugee or similar status, are not from ESTA countries,” he said. “They are from countries where the U.S. requires that they have a proper visa before they can visit the U.S.”
Booth said the U.S. could reduce visa wait times by increasing the number of interview waivers for some visa categories, hiring more consular officers and extending consulate hours.
