Last updated December 2023

U.S. embassies and consulates abroad provide routine visa services to thousands of applicants daily.  We are committed to resolving the immigrant visa backlog and transparently sharing the current status of our worldwide visa operations.

Number of IV applicants whose cases are documentarily complete at NVC and ready for interview as of November 30	341,392
Number of documentarily complete IV applicants scheduled for December 2023 interview appointments	36,619
Number of eligible IV applicants still pending the scheduling of an interview after December 2023 appointment scheduling was completed	304,773

Note: In Calendar Year 2019 on average, 60,866 applicants were pending the scheduling of an interview each month.

This data is a snapshot in time provided for informational purposes in order to be as transparent as possible.  Given that these numbers change on a regular basis through our ongoing effort to reduce the backlog, they will be outdated soon after they are published each month.  

In addition, this data is specific to cases that have been processed by NVC and determined to be “documentarily complete.”  It does not reflect IV cases that have already been transferred to an embassy or consulate for interview, cases that are still with USCIS for petition approval, or cases that are not considered documentarily complete.  For more information about when an application is considered documentarily complete, see: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-8-scan-collected-documents/step-9-upload-and-submit-scanned-documents.html

For a step-by-step breakdown of the Immigrant Visa Process, see: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition.html

Reminder: Applicants should be as prepared as possible for their interview by bringing all required documents with them.  Being fully prepared will not only speed up the interview, but also help the Department more efficiently reduce the number of those waiting for an interview appointment.