Shorter waiting time for US visa application eyed

Expect a shorter waiting period in making an appointment for United States visa application as the US Embassy in the Philippines expects to process 325,000 US visas this year.

According to JP Soriano's report on "24 Oras," due to the pandemic, Filipinos had to wait up to two years to get a visa appointment, but the embassy targets to shorten the waiting period by four to five months.

"It is now about four to five months. We are hoping have it within two to three months by the end of the year," US Embassy in the Philippines Consul General Mark McGovern said.

He said that the application for a fiancé visa since last year was also record-breaking.

"We're issuing record numbers of these, I believe last year was almost 4,900 fiancé visas that we have issued and close to 22 thousand of the immigrant visas that we have issued last year," he said.

However, the process for the petition for a spouse, child, or parent who is a US citizen is quite longer.

"The backlog we have now is some on the longer term form in the unification visas. Expect probably within the next six to nine months," McGovern said.

He added that if an applicant is only applying for a tourist visa for a vacation that doesn't exceed six months, one does not need too many documents like numerous bank accounts or letters of endorsements from a politician.

The Embassy official said it is important for the applicant to be able to prove that he would return to the Philippines after the vacation.

"Number one, always tell the truth. Number two, don't use a lot of these maybe agencies that are being scammers don't believe that there is a checklist cause none of those stuff exist. Number three, rely on the official information that we have available in all of our websites," McGovern said.

He clarified that it is not true that women applicants are most likely to be denied.

Th Embassy also announced that beginning June 17, US visa application will cost P1,000 higher than its current rate. —Sherylin Untalan/LDF, GMA Integrated News