The United States fared the worst in the Travel News Visa Barometer in terms of how long it takes to get an appointment, with records showing an average wait time of 20 weeks. Austria had the second-longest wait time at eight weeks, followed by France (6,2 weeks), Italy (5,2 weeks), and Portugal (4,5 weeks).
Canada emerged as the destination for which visa processing time takes the longest. On average, clients need to wait 9,67 weeks, followed by the United Kingdom and Portugal at six weeks each. The United States, despite its long wait time for an appointment, reportedly averages a processing time of 4,67 weeks.
In July, as travel geared up, agents started complaining about the time it was taking for travellers to get visas. Travel News responded with the Visa Barometer and travel agents have been adding data to the system since July 27. Submissions have now been stopped. The final results are as follows in the image below.
Agents contributed to the data with their clients’ personal experiences not older than two months.
A total of 13 countries were analysed, based on 82 records submitted by agents based on their clients’ experiences. The UK’s data was built from 26 records, making it the country whose data was influenced by the highest number of visa experiences.
