Forty U.S. mayors, including those from New York, Washington and Nashville, have sent called on the State Department to speed up processing visitor visas, saying the cities are losing tourism revenue because travelers who need visas can't get them.
The mayors, sent a letter, organized through the U.S. Travel Association to Secretary of State Blinken complaining that waits of up to a year for visas are common at U.S. embassies and consulates in a number of countries, in part because priority is being given to processing other types of visas.
The letter argues that "Due to the lack of prioritization of visitor visa categories, cities and counties are missing out on the opportunity to compete for millions of international visitors due to U.S. visa processing delays," the letter read. "Local economies lose because international business and leisure travelers spend more money on their trips to the United States than domestic travelers."
They are calling on the department to lower processing times to 21 days for the 'top countries for inbound travel' by April, and to lower it to 21 days or less for at least 80% of all visitor visa applications by September. Applications in Mexico and India have taken as long as a year and a half to be processed, in part because of pandemic staff shortages.
A State Department spokesperson downplayed the issue, saying that 90% of potential visitors do not need visas, and that the department is already lowering wait times.
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