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Booking a U.S. Visa Appointment in India
Applicants in India book through ustraveldocs.com/in, and most non-immigrant applicants need two appointments, not one: a short biometrics visit to a Visa Application Centre (VAC), and the interview itself at a consular post. They are on separate days, usually at different addresses, and the VAC visit normally comes first.
You cannot book either until your DS-160 is submitted and your visa fee has activated — which is the single most common reason the booking screen appears empty. The general sequence is on how to book a U.S. visa appointment; this page covers what is specific to India.
The five posts you can choose from
India has more U.S. consular posts than any country except Mexico:
| Post | City |
|---|---|
| Embassy | New Delhi |
| Consulate General | Mumbai |
| Consulate General | Chennai |
| Consulate General | Hyderabad |
| Consulate General | Kolkata |
Each post keeps its own appointment calendar, so wait times differ substantially between them. You choose your post when you create your profile.
Two things worth knowing before you pick:
- Your DS-160 names a post. If you book at a different one, the mismatch is a routine fix, but it is cleaner to decide first and fill the form accordingly.
- Choosing a distant post to get an earlier slot is allowed, but you must actually travel there twice — once for biometrics, once for the interview — and consular officers at that post handle applicants from all over the country regardless.
The two-appointment structure
- VAC (biometrics). A short visit where fingerprints and a photograph are taken. No interview happens here. The India posts state a hard minimum: the VAC appointment must be at least two business days before the consular interview. Not "a few days" as a courtesy — two business days as a floor, so a Friday VAC does not support a Monday interview.
- Consular interview. At the embassy or consulate you selected, with the officer who decides your case.
Both are booked through the same profile, usually in the same flow. If you only see one, check that you have completed the whole booking sequence rather than assuming the other is not required — arriving at the consulate without having done biometrics generally means being turned away.
Bring the DS-160 confirmation page with the barcode to both.
Booking either one needs three numbers, and having them to hand saves a scramble: your passport number, the visa fee receipt number, and the ten-digit barcode from the DS-160 confirmation page.
Only applicants under 14 bring a printed photograph
At the VAC, a photograph is taken of you. The India posts additionally require one photograph meeting U.S. visa specifications only where the applicant is under 14 years of age — so most adults do not need to arrive with prints, and the parents of a young child do.
This sits alongside a separate change and the two are easy to confuse. Children under 14 no longer skip the interview — the age-based exemptions were withdrawn, as the interview waiver guide sets out. So a child under 14 now generally attends an interview and needs a printed photo for the VAC. Old guidance gets both of these wrong in opposite directions.
Photo rules are unforgiving about background, head size and glasses; the photo requirements guide covers the specification.
If you use a medical device, bring a doctor's letter
This one is easy to miss, and the consequence is losing the appointment. The embassy's own visa pages carry it as a standing notice:
Applicants with Medical Devices. Applicants arriving for their interview with medically necessary devices are required to bring a hard-copy original letter from a medical professional certifying to the medical need of having the device with them during their time in the Consular Section. Failure to provide this documentation may result in denial of entry to the Consular Section and rescheduling of your appointment.
Three details in that wording matter. The letter must be hard copy and original, so a phone screenshot or a PDF on a laptop does not satisfy it. It must come from a medical professional and state the medical need, not merely name the device. And the stated consequence is not a warning — it is refusal of entry to the consular section and a new appointment date, which in India can mean months.
We found this notice on the India posts' pages. We checked the Mexico, Philippines and Brazil visa pages on 15 September 2026 and none of them carried it, so treat it as an India instruction, not one we can confirm for other posts, and read your own post's page if you are applying elsewhere.
Why slots disappear while you are booking
India has among the highest application volumes in the world, and slots are taken within seconds of release at busy posts. Practical consequences:
- Have every detail ready before you start. The system holds a slot only briefly during booking, and a slow form fill loses it.
- Cancellations reappear continuously. Slots freed by other applicants rescheduling show up throughout the day, not only at release time.
- A slot is not confirmed until you see the confirmation. Reaching the payment or review screen does not reserve it.
Current published waiting periods are on U.S. visa wait times. Treat any specific number as perishable; posts revise them frequently.
What you cannot take into the compound
The India posts publish a specific list, and two of its rules matter more than the rest.
No one may come in with you. Friends, relatives, attorneys and business contacts are not permitted to attend a nonimmigrant visa interview, at the Embassy, the Consulates or the Visa Application Center.
There is no storage. The posts state there is no facility at the Embassy, Consulates or VAC to hold prohibited items, and that you must arrange to store them before entering. A phone in your pocket at the gate is your problem to solve, and you will be solving it on the street.
Not permitted:
- Battery-operated or electronic devices — mobile phones, electronic key fobs, smart watches, smart rings, smart glasses, digital diaries, pagers, cameras, audio and video cassettes, CDs, MP3 players, floppy disks, flash drives, memory sticks, Bluetooth devices, Fitbits, laptops and tablets
- Large bags — shoulder bags, purses, travel bags, backpacks, briefcases and suitcases. Only hand-carried bags are allowed: an unsealed plastic bag of application papers, a small cloth bag, a zip folder
- Food or drink
- Cosmetics, including spray perfume or cologne and talcum or baby powder
- Sealed envelopes or packages
- Flammables — cigarettes, cigars, matchboxes, lighters
- Sharp objects — scissors, pocketknives, penknives, nail files
- Weapons or explosive material of any kind
- Umbrellas with long handles, over 40 cm closed
The posts add that the list is not exhaustive and that security staff may prohibit other items at their discretion. They also note there is no information window for walk-in visitors: only applicants with a scheduled interview are admitted, so arriving early to ask a question is not something the building supports.
This is India's published list. Other posts publish their own, and the general shape of these rules is on the main appointment guide.
Rescheduling in India
Rescheduling is done in the same profile that made the booking. The cap matters: posts commonly allow around three reschedules before the fee is at risk, and failing to appear without rescheduling in advance can void it entirely — meaning paying the visa fee again for a new appointment.
The fee itself is generally usable for one year from the date of payment, and it is tied to your passport and receipt rather than to a specific DS-160. Correcting your form produces a new confirmation number, which you then use when booking; nothing about the fee is reissued.
Getting an earlier date
- The emergency or expedited request remains free. You submit a reason with evidence through your profile and the post decides. Medical emergencies, funerals and urgent business are the usual grounds; wanting to travel sooner is not.
- The $750 expedited interview fee is a separate, paid route with narrower eligibility than most people assume — see the $750 expedited interview fee.
Neither conjures a slot that does not exist. Both ask a post to prioritise you within what it already has.
Getting your passport back
The interview is not the last step, and this part of the process has its own deadlines.
Four to six business days. The India posts state that an approved passport is returned within 4–6 business days, and that you are notified by SMS and email as soon as it is ready for collection. They add, in as many words, that you do not need to contact the call centre to check on it — which is worth reading twice if you are on day three and anxious.
You choose the collection point when you book, not afterwards. The passport goes to the pickup location you selected during appointment scheduling. In India those locations are operated by VFS and Blue Dart, and the list appears while you are scheduling.
Changing that choice has a deadline: one business day before the interview. You can change the document delivery address or pick-up location by logging in to the appointment site, but only up to one business day before your interview at the Embassy or Consulate. After that the destination is fixed, so a move, a trip, or a change of plan needs handling before the interview rather than after it.
Checking the status. You can look up your DS-160 and visa application status online with your interview location and your DS-160 barcode number, which is another reason to keep the confirmation page rather than discard it once the interview is over.
If you correct your DS-160 after booking
This is the rule most worth knowing in advance, because by the time it matters you are at the door.
Booked on or after 15 November 2023? Bring both confirmation pages to the VAC or document drop-off: the original one you used to schedule the appointment, and the corrected one. Not just the corrected page.
If you cannot bring both, the instruction is to cancel and reschedule, entering your corrected DS-160 application number. That is the sentence that makes this worth reading early — a lost original confirmation page can cost the appointment, and reschedules in India are limited.
Booked before 15 November 2023? The older instruction applies and you may proceed with the corrected confirmation page alone.
The barcode also has to match: every applicant must bring a DS-160 confirmation page whose barcode number, beginning with AA, matches the one used to book the appointment.
The general advice on fixing DS-160 mistakes still holds for most posts. India is one of the stricter ones, which is exactly why it is written out here.
Group appointments, and who they are not for
There is a formal group appointment facility, and the most useful thing to know about it is who it excludes. Families and relatives travelling together do not qualify as a group and must request individual appointments. The categories the India posts name are performing artists, school trips, professional trainees and tour groups — organised parties, not households.
If you are organising one, the published rules have several traps in them:
- Wait for the approval email before adding anybody. Members and dependents are added only after the Embassy or Consulate confirms the group request by email.
- One request at a time. Do not send group requests to several posts simultaneously; submit one, and raise another only once it has been approved or rejected.
- Over 25–30 members, split the group. The posts advise this simply because slots for a party that size are hard to find.
- Add existing profiles by UID, not by name. The "Add by Name" option is for people without a profile; using it on someone who already has one is the documented mistake.
- A member holding a future appointment cannot be added until that appointment is cancelled, and a member already listed as someone else's dependent cannot be added until they are removed from that list.
- The approval is good for one scheduling run, within its validity period.
The group leader can carry out the booking steps on behalf of members, and performing groups are encouraged to upload a detailed itinerary with the request.
Frequently asked questions
Can I book the interview at any Indian consulate?
Yes, you choose your post when creating your profile. But you travel there for both appointments, so a distant post with earlier availability may cost more in travel than it saves in waiting.
Do I need the VAC appointment if I am applying for a renewal?
If you qualify for an interview waiver, the process differs and may not require a consular interview at all — check who still qualifies for an interview waiver before booking anything.
My fee is paid but no slots appear. What now?
Almost always the receipt has not activated yet. Check the activation time for the payment method you used on the India fee guide before contacting support. Paying a second time does not help and is not refunded.
Can my family book together?
Yes, as dependents in one profile — but not as a "group appointment", which is a different thing and the India posts are explicit that families do not qualify for it. Add family members as dependents when scheduling, and each still needs their own DS-160 and their own fee. See group appointments for what that facility is actually for.
Is ustraveldocs the official site?
It is the applicant service platform Indian posts direct people to. It is not the Department of State's own website, and it is not where the DS-160 is completed. Reach it through your embassy or consulate's own link rather than a search result — see which appointment site is yours.
The support channel has also moved. The India posts now direct visa enquiries to SUPPORT-INDIA@USVISASCHEDULING.COM, describing it as a migration to a new customer-service platform. The change of domain is not a sign you are on the wrong service: USTravelDocs and usvisascheduling.com are run by the same operator, which USTravelDocs Japan states on its own contact page.
How long does it take to get my passport back?
The India posts say 4–6 business days after approval, with an SMS and email when it is ready at the collection point you chose. They also say you do not need to call to check. See getting your passport back.
I use a medical device. What do I need to bring?
A hard-copy original letter from a medical professional certifying that you need the device with you inside the consular section. A digital copy is not enough, and without the letter the posts state you may be refused entry and rescheduled. See the section above.