Usa Tourist Visa Interview Waiting List = Forever!

[JatujakShopper]

I'm hoping to get some advice from those who have experienced this. I'm a US citizen resident in Thailand.

My elderly parents have been asking us (my Thai wife and I) to come for a visit for years now and we decided to do it this summer. We want to fly out the last week of May and return in early September. My wife purchased an 'Online Interview Waiting List Appointment' and we sat down last night to fill it out. To my astonishment NO appointments are available as far into the future as October! <deleted>!?

She has been to the USA twice already and never had this kind of wait- what is going on? Surely this is a computer glitch? I wish she had bought the phone version (and shame on my country for charging for that kind of thing) and we may end up doing that next.

Has anyone else run into this problem? Any advice on how to proceed would be welcome, thanks!

[longball53098]

I had a similar problem last year with my cousins aunt getting an appointment. I was so frustrated I called the service number and got some young lady on the phone and she seemed to say that it was very busy now(that time) and keep trying as there are cancellations. Magically in a day or so several times opened up and we got an appointment time. It is not easy but keep trying. Daily for sure and maybe 2 or3 times a day if possible.

[JatujakShopper]

Hey longball53098,

Thanks for that information, definitely makes me feel better, sounds like there is hope. We will keep trying.

I had a similar problem last year with my cousins aunt getting an appointment. I was so frustrated I called the service number and got some young lady on the phone and she seemed to say that it was very busy now(that time) and keep trying as there are cancellations. Magically in a day or so several times opened up and we got an appointment time. It is not easy but keep trying. Daily for sure and maybe 2 or3 times a day if possible.

[mizzi39]

My wife recently received her 10 year tourist visa. We filled out the application January 14th bought the pin# and looked for a date to make the appointment online. To my astonishment there was only one day open from the 14th to the end of January and that date was January 25th, so we locked in for that day. The whole month of February was open though. What is the embassy's daily quota? You may have to keep trying back.

Chok dee.

[LuckyLew]

For what it is worth, USA Gov't is probably not the ones charging

All this sort if thing is now outsourced and it is that company that

is charging you. Probably charging you for making the reservation

using their system.

[Thanyaburi Mac]

My wife recently received her 10 year tourist visa. We filled out the application January 14th bought the pin# and looked for a date to make the appointment online. To my astonishment there was only one day open from the 14th to the end of January and that date was January 25th, so we locked in for that day. The whole month of February was open though. What is the embassy's daily quota? You may have to keep trying back.

Chok dee.

No idea what the daily quota might be but it must be a bunch!

I was down to the CONS last Wednesday to get additional pages for my passport while they're still FREE rather than the $82 coming soon. This was at 0930 hrs and the line of people for visas was full inside in the non-aircon area with people filling out forms. Line outside waiting to go through security was relatively short, 15 or so.

Mac

[tripplejjj]

I wish she had bought the phone version (and shame on my country for charging for that kind of thing) and we may end up doing that next.

From what I read and understand, the visa fees are based on what Thailand charges the US citizens when applying for visas. It was kinda like since Thailand charges US citizens for visa to live in Thailand, then the US will do the same by charging Thai citizens who want to visit the US. This info was posted on the US Visa website a while back. I can't find it now. As far as I am concern, the money is coming out of my wallet either way. What a double whammy.

Now that I thought about it, if the visa process is free, then ultimately, the US taxpayers are paying for these services. Dang, you just can't win when it comes to money. This sucks!

Edited March 6, 2010 by tripplejjj

[Thanyaburi Mac]

I wish she had bought the phone version (and shame on my country for charging for that kind of thing) and we may end up doing that next.

From what I read and understand, the visa fees are based on what Thailand charges the US citizens when applying for visas. It was kinda like since Thailand charges US citizens for visa to live in Thailand, then the US will do the same by charging Thai citizens who want to visit the US. This info was posted on the US Visa website a while back. I can't find it now. As far as I am concern, the money is coming out of my wallet either way. What a double whammy.

Now that I thought about it, if the visa process is free, then ultimately, the US taxpayers are paying for these services. Dang, you just can't win when it comes to money. This sucks!

Nope, the visa fees, whether for non-immigrant or immigrant visas are the same for all countries, thus a rich Londoner pays the same as a Kumphawapi rice farmer for a visa APPLICATION. That's just for the application process, no guarantee that a visa will subsequently be issued.

Mac

[theoldgit]

Nope, the visa fees, whether for non-immigrant or immigrant visas are the same for all countries, thus a rich Londoner pays the same as a Kumphawapi rice farmer for a visa APPLICATION. That's just for the application process, no guarantee that a visa will subsequently be issued.

Except that the "rich Londoner" (are there any left?) can visit the US using the Visa Waiver scheme, so doesn't need to apply for a visa for a holiday.

[flying]

Just curious as to which consulate office/branch was it with?

[DirectorIntegrityLegal]

I wish she had bought the phone version (and shame on my country for charging for that kind of thing) and we may end up doing that next.

From what I read and understand, the visa fees are based on what Thailand charges the US citizens when applying for visas. It was kinda like since Thailand charges US citizens for visa to live in Thailand, then the US will do the same by charging Thai citizens who want to visit the US. This info was posted on the US Visa website a while back. I can't find it now. As far as I am concern, the money is coming out of my wallet either way. What a double whammy.

Now that I thought about it, if the visa process is free, then ultimately, the US taxpayers are paying for these services. Dang, you just can't win when it comes to money. This sucks!

Nope, the visa fees, whether for non-immigrant or immigrant visas are the same for all countries, thus a rich Londoner pays the same as a Kumphawapi rice farmer for a visa APPLICATION. That's just for the application process, no guarantee that a visa will subsequently be issued.

Mac

Just FYI on this note, the K category visa application fees could be going up soon as well, for more click here.

[dominique355]

My Thai wife just applied for a tourist visa to the USA and bought the PIN number ate the post office filled out the forms in the Internet. Then she tried to schedule an appointment on the website of the US Embassy. To our amazement there were no appointment dates available until the end of this year!!!

So, we thought, that's it! No way we will be able to attend her sister's wedding in August. And is USA really absolutely not interested in tourists visiting ? Or just trying to make our life miserable?

So my wife made some research in Thai websites and found out that these web pages of the US Government, where you schedule an appointment often update and mostly around midnight. So she stayed up all night and reloaded the page every 2 minutes.

And what do you know? At 2 AM there appeared a green (= available) slot end of March. She took it and is happy. Now all we have to do is to repeat the whole procedure 3 more times for her mother, sister and auntie. Oh brother!

But how is it possible that officially there is not a single appointment for a visa interview available for the rest of this year? Does anyone know what's going on there?

[mizzi39]

My Thai wife just applied for a tourist visa to the USA and bought the PIN number ate the post office filled out the forms in the Internet. Then she tried to schedule an appointment on the website of the US Embassy. To our amazement there were no appointment dates available until the end of this year!!!

So, we thought, that's it! No way we will be able to attend her sister's wedding in August. And is USA really absolutely not interested in tourists visiting ? Or just trying to make our life miserable?

So my wife made some research in Thai websites and found out that these web pages of the US Government, where you schedule an appointment often update and mostly around midnight. So she stayed up all night and reloaded the page every 2 minutes.

And what do you know? At 2 AM there appeared a green (= available) slot end of March. She took it and is happy. Now all we have to do is to repeat the whole procedure 3 more times for her mother, sister and auntie. Oh brother!

But how is it possible that officially there is not a single appointment for a visa interview available for the rest of this year? Does anyone know what's going on there?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that you could apply for up to 3 family members on the same DS 156 application when applying for your wife, at least this is what I remember seeing when we applied for my wife. Did you apply for your in-laws separately?

If you applied on the same application I think that their interview would be on the same day as your wife, but i could be wrong.

Who knows what is going on with the embassy. We waited to apply for my wife until January figuring that we had plenty of time to schedule the appointment, since we are travelling in April. After all the state departments web site stated that there was only a 1 day wait for tourist visas. Thank the lord Buddha that we did not wait longer. Whatever is happening with the lack of available dates must have happened very recently.Like i stated in my last post my wife was able to lock in on the only day available after Jan.14th which was the 25th, but as of Jan.14th the whole month of February was open, so go figure.

Good luck to you and your family!

[JatujakShopper]

My Thai wife just applied for a tourist visa to the USA and bought the PIN number ate the post office filled out the forms in the Internet. Then she tried to schedule an appointment on the website of the US Embassy. To our amazement there were no appointment dates available until the end of this year!!!

So, we thought, that's it! No way we will be able to attend her sister's wedding in August. And is USA really absolutely not interested in tourists visiting ? Or just trying to make our life miserable?

So my wife made some research in Thai websites and found out that these web pages of the US Government, where you schedule an appointment often update and mostly around midnight. So she stayed up all night and reloaded the page every 2 minutes.

And what do you know? At 2 AM there appeared a green (= available) slot end of March. She took it and is happy. Now all we have to do is to repeat the whole procedure 3 more times for her mother, sister and auntie. Oh brother!

But how is it possible that officially there is not a single appointment for a visa interview available for the rest of this year? Does anyone know what's going on there?

First of all my sincere thanks to all who have posted info and encouragement here, much appreciated!

We ended up having nearly the same experience dominique355 (quoted above) had, finally landing an appointment at the very end of March. One thing I did was right away go to the trouble of sending a hail of emails to the embassy (here in Bangkok) politely demanding to know what was going on?! They politely responded with the same 'Check and check again, particularly late at night' advice found on Thai forums and that ended up working, although I would have preffered to get this taken care of much earlier- now I need to check the refund policy of the airline I'd like to use and decide whether to buy the tickets now at the risk they will go up in April! Does anyone know how long they take to process a visa once she is accepted? We want to leave at the end of May...

By the way, I recommended to them that they post that kind of helpful info on Their website to prevent worried emails like mine and they allowed as how they would consider my suggestion.

[mizzi39]

My Thai wife just applied for a tourist visa to the USA and bought the PIN number ate the post office filled out the forms in the Internet. Then she tried to schedule an appointment on the website of the US Embassy. To our amazement there were no appointment dates available until the end of this year!!!

So, we thought, that's it! No way we will be able to attend her sister's wedding in August. And is USA really absolutely not interested in tourists visiting ? Or just trying to make our life miserable?

So my wife made some research in Thai websites and found out that these web pages of the US Government, where you schedule an appointment often update and mostly around midnight. So she stayed up all night and reloaded the page every 2 minutes.

And what do you know? At 2 AM there appeared a green (= available) slot end of March. She took it and is happy. Now all we have to do is to repeat the whole procedure 3 more times for her mother, sister and auntie. Oh brother!

But how is it possible that officially there is not a single appointment for a visa interview available for the rest of this year? Does anyone know what's going on there?

First of all my sincere thanks to all who have posted info and encouragement here, much appreciated!

We ended up having nearly the same experience dominique355 (quoted above) had, finally landing an appointment at the very end of March. One thing I did was right away go to the trouble of sending a hail of emails to the embassy (here in Bangkok) politely demanding to know what was going on?! They politely responded with the same 'Check and check again, particularly late at night' advice found on Thai forums and that ended up working, although I would have preffered to get this taken care of much earlier- now I need to check the refund policy of the airline I'd like to use and decide whether to buy the tickets now at the risk they will go up in April! Does anyone know how long they take to process a visa once she is accepted? We want to leave at the end of May...

By the way, I recommended to them that they post that kind of helpful info on Their website to prevent worried emails like mine and they allowed as how they would consider my suggestion.

She will receive the visa via EMS in 3-4 business days from the day of her interview. Again chok dee.

[JatujakShopper]

Thanks mizzi39,

That's good to hear. Cheers!

[dominique355]

My Thai wife just applied for a tourist visa to the USA and bought the PIN number ate the post office filled out the forms in the Internet. Then she tried to schedule an appointment on the website of the US Embassy. To our amazement there were no appointment dates available until the end of this year!!!

So, we thought, that's it! No way we will be able to attend her sister's wedding in August. And is USA really absolutely not interested in tourists visiting ? Or just trying to make our life miserable?

So my wife made some research in Thai websites and found out that these web pages of the US Government, where you schedule an appointment often update and mostly around midnight. So she stayed up all night and reloaded the page every 2 minutes.

And what do you know? At 2 AM there appeared a green (= available) slot end of March. She took it and is happy. Now all we have to do is to repeat the whole procedure 3 more times for her mother, sister and auntie. Oh brother!

But how is it possible that officially there is not a single appointment for a visa interview available for the rest of this year? Does anyone know what's going on there?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that you could apply for up to 3 family members on the same DS 156 application when applying for your wife, at least this is what I remember seeing when we applied for my wife. Did you apply for your in-laws separately?

If you applied on the same application I think that their interview would be on the same day as your wife, but i could be wrong.

Who knows what is going on with the embassy. We waited to apply for my wife until January figuring that we had plenty of time to schedule the appointment, since we are travelling in April. After all the state departments web site stated that there was only a 1 day wait for tourist visas. Thank the lord Buddha that we did not wait longer. Whatever is happening with the lack of available dates must have happened very recently.Like i stated in my last post my wife was able to lock in on the only day available after Jan.14th which was the 25th, but as of Jan.14th the whole month of February was open, so go figure.

Good luck to you and your family!

Thanks Mizzi. I understand that family members may go to the same interview only if they live at the same address, which is not the case with us. My In-Laws live in the far away province of Trat.

[Svenn]

This is odd. When my gf applied in December on a monday, appointments were available starting that very wednesday, all time slots being open. She choose friday morning and got the visa. I wonder why it all of a sudden got so busy

[shawndoc]

This is odd. When my gf applied in December on a monday, appointments were available starting that very wednesday, all time slots being open. She choose friday morning and got the visa. I wonder why it all of a sudden got so busy

Probably because summer is the prime vacation season here in the states, so the number of people wanting friends and family to come visit shoots up.

[johndpoole]

Somebody manually has to go in and put in the open dates. They only do like 2 weeks out. Keep checking back every day and realize they could add the openings any time of the day. You can also call and ask them what is going on and it seems to help get them off their butts to add some dates. Supposedly it is one supervisor who handles this.