Processing Times and Return of Passport (2024)

Your passport will be returned to you by the Embassy approved courier service. To ensure that there are no delays with the delivery, you must register with courier at the time you schedule the appointment for the visa interview.

If you were advised on the day of your interview that your application is successful, you should allow approximately7 to 10 working days for your application to be processed.

If additional information or documentation was required in your case, you must allow additional time.

All times are given for guidance only as processing varies in every case. We cannot guarantee that a visa will be issued by a specific date, so please do not make final travel plans, or give up employment or accommodation, until you have received your passport containing a valid visa.

As soon as visa processing is complete and delivery arrangements have been made, the courier will contact you by email and/or text with delivery tracking information.

Your passport will be returned to you in a plastic courier envelope.

If your courier envelope contains a large white envelope, known as a visa package, it is important that youdo not openthe visa package. It should only be opened by immigration officials at the U.S. Port of Entry.

If your visa is annotated with the phrase “IV Docs in CCD,” you willnotreceive an immigrant visa package. That is because you scanned your supporting documents as part of the visa process.