The State Department’s latest immigrant visa scheduling data shows sharply different interview queues across U.S. embassies and consulates, with some posts still scheduling cases that became documentarily complete years ago while others are effectively current.
The Immigrant Visa Scheduling Status Tool was last updated September 9, 2026. It reports the documentarily complete month and year from which the National Visa Center is currently scheduling interviews for immediate-relative, family-preference and employment-based immigrant visas at each post.
Some posts are years behind others
For employment-based immigrant visas, Abu Dhabi was scheduling cases documentarily complete in October 2023, while Accra was at November 2023. By contrast, Auckland, Amsterdam, Athens and a number of other posts were scheduling September 2026 cases.
Family-preference scheduling also varies substantially. Ankara, for example, was scheduling preference cases documentarily complete in September 2023, while many other embassies were already at or near September 2026.
What the dates actually mean
The dates are not guaranteed interview dates and should not be treated as a promise that a particular applicant will receive an appointment within a fixed period. The State Department says scheduling can be affected by embassy capacity, staffing, case volume, transfer requests, local conditions, vetting timelines and Visa Bulletin availability.
The tool also measures when most interviews are being scheduled based on the date NVC determined a case was documentarily complete. Preference-category cases can be scheduled only when a visa number is available.
Why this matters for applicants
The September data makes clear that the same immigrant visa category can move at very different speeds depending on the assigned embassy or consulate. Applicants waiting for interviews should therefore check both their post’s current scheduling month and, for preference cases, the monthly Visa Bulletin.
TR Immigration will continue tracking the monthly changes because movement at individual posts can be more informative than a single global estimate.
