US cancelled 2000 Visas stating, “We have zero tolerance for frauds”

The US is taking strong action against automated bots that have been preventing appointments for visa interviews in India. To get appointments on time for their planned visits, these bots have made many applicants pay agents between ₹30,000 and ₹35,000 each.

Wednesday, the US Embassy in India said on X (formerly Twitter) that it had cancelled about 2,000 bookings for visas that were made by bots. “Consular Team India is cancelling about 2,000 visa appointments made by bots. We have zero tolerance for agents and fixers who violate our scheduling policies. Effective immediately, we are cancelling these appointments and suspending the associated accounts’ scheduling privileges,”  the post said.

The embassy emphasised its dedication to fighting fraud by declaring, "We will continue our anti-fraud efforts. We have zero tolerance for frauds.”  The embassy did an in-depth investigation from May to August of last year and came up with a list of 30 agents connected to multiple IP addresses. These agents were considered to work for visa consultants, document vendors, passport delivery services, and education consultants. The case is currently under investigation.

People who work in the travel industry know that it takes a long time to get a US visa interview, whether it's for a business (B1/B2) or student visa. But agents have been able to get slots within a month by blocking appointments with bots.

For now, the wait time for a B1/B2 visa interview is over six months, but people who pay ₹30,000 to ₹35,000 to agents often get slots within a month. According to people in the industry, agents use bots to block a lot of meetings, which makes it hard for regular applicants to find empty slots. When the wait time for B1/B2 visas got to be almost 999 days in 2023, the US let Indian applicants make reservations at consulates in Frankfurt and Bangkok to help clear the backlog.

The Indian government told the US government two or three years ago that it was worried about the long wait times for visas. The US has taken steps to cut down on delays since then. With the new crackdown on bots, visa processing times should get even faster. The cancellation of visa appointments comes shortly after the Trump administration's crackdown on foreigners entering the country illegally, including via the 'donkey' route. As part of Donald Trump's promise to make the US border safer, thousands of people have been deported since he took office two months ago.