The B-1/B-2 visitor visa in 2023 finally delivered the recovery that 2022 had only promised. The State Department attacked the interview backlog with surge staffing and creative processing, the last COVID-era entry rule died in May, and by year-end the U.S. was issuing nonimmigrant visas at close to record pace, roughly 10 million across all categories for the fiscal year, with visitor visas the largest share. Here is what actually happened.
The war on wait times
2023 opened with India, the system's worst bottleneck, as the declared priority. The department's playbook was aggressive and mostly worked.
- Consular staffing surged, with temporary duty officers deployed to high-volume posts and special Saturday interview drives in India.
- Indian applicants were permitted to interview at U.S. posts in third countries, including Bangkok and Frankfurt, spreading the load across the global network.
- Remote processing of interview-waiver renewals let officers anywhere adjudicate dropbox cases from anywhere, a quiet but consequential efficiency.
The results showed: first-time visitor interview waits in India fell from the notorious 1,000-day-range peaks toward a few hundred days by late 2023, still too long, but a dramatic, measurable improvement. Posts across Latin America made similar progress.
May 11: the last COVID rule ended
With the end of the federal COVID emergency, the vaccination requirement for foreign air travelers expired on May 11, 2023. For the first time since early 2020, a valid B-1/B-2 visa and an honest purpose were all a visitor fundamentally needed. Unvaccinated travelers who had been locked out for two years, including business travelers from major markets, could finally book flights.
The price of admission went up
Recovery came with a bill. Effective in mid-2023, the B-1/B-2 application fee rose from $160 to $185, the first increase in years, justified by the department as cost recovery for consular services. Reasonable people can accept user-funded consular operations; the fairer complaint was paying more while waits remained long at many posts. Applicants also continued to bear the fee-forfeiture risk of denials, which stayed common: visitor refusal rates remained substantial worldwide as officers enforced the ties-to-home standard.
Demand told the real story
Behind the statistics was an unambiguous fact: the world still wants to visit America, for tourism, deals, conferences, and family. Fiscal year 2023's near-record issuance happened despite higher fees and lingering waits. Lawful visitors inject tens of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy annually, and 2023 proved the demand is there whenever the system opens its doors. That is an argument for permanent consular capacity, not emergency scrambles after every disruption.
What this means for you
The 2023 recovery rewrote the practical playbook.
- Check wait times before choosing where to apply; differences between posts, and third-country options where allowed, can save months.
- Renew within the interview-waiver window whenever possible; dropbox eligibility remains the single biggest time-saver in the system.
- Budget for the $185 fee per applicant and treat the interview as decisive: purpose, funds, and ties to home, stated clearly.
- Apply well before any fixed-date event; recovered does not mean instant.
The B-1/B-2 in 2023 showed that consular backlogs are a solvable problem when leadership treats them as one. The lesson for travelers: the system rewards those who apply early, prepare well, and keep their documents current.
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