Business travellers planning trips to the United States received a modest boost on 9 February when the latest U.S. State Department feed showed that the wait time for a standard B1/B2 visitor-visa interview in Bern has fallen to 24 calendar days, down from 31 at the start of the year. Student and exchange visas (F/M/J) still require 44 days, but applicants who qualify for the drop-box renewal programme face processing times of just five days.(afnovisaguide.com)
Consular officials attribute the shorter queues to the return of a third interviewing window in the embassy’s consular section and the seasonal lull that follows the New Year rush. They nevertheless caution that demand spikes ahead of Easter and the summer holidays can push B1/B2 waits back above 40 days with little warning.
For Swiss residents who would rather leave the paperwork and monitoring to specialists, VisaHQ offers a convenient concierge-style service that can pre-check documents, keep tabs on shifting wait times and organise courier delivery of passports once the visa is issued. Its Switzerland portal (https://www.visahq.com/switzerland/) also lists alternative visa categories and renewal options, making it a handy resource for both first-time and frequent travellers.
![U.S. Embassy Bern Posts February Visa Interview Wait Times: B1/B2 Down to 24 Days]()
Swiss corporations continue to feel the ripple effects of the post-pandemic backlog: petition-based H/L/O visa appointments, essential for intra-company transfers and specialists, stand at 18 days—short enough for urgent deployments but still longer than the single-digit waits common before 2020.
Global-mobility managers are advised to monitor the embassy’s dashboard weekly and to remind travellers that the published figure covers the gap between scheduling and the first available slot; administrative processing after the interview can add days or weeks. Executives who need to combine a U.S. trip with onward travel to Canada or Mexico should therefore build extra buffer time into itineraries.
The U.S. mission repeated that emergency appointment requests remain possible for medical workers, students facing immovable start dates and travellers with funerals to attend, provided documentary proof is supplied.
Consular officials attribute the shorter queues to the return of a third interviewing window in the embassy’s consular section and the seasonal lull that follows the New Year rush. They nevertheless caution that demand spikes ahead of Easter and the summer holidays can push B1/B2 waits back above 40 days with little warning.
For Swiss residents who would rather leave the paperwork and monitoring to specialists, VisaHQ offers a convenient concierge-style service that can pre-check documents, keep tabs on shifting wait times and organise courier delivery of passports once the visa is issued. Its Switzerland portal (https://www.visahq.com/switzerland/) also lists alternative visa categories and renewal options, making it a handy resource for both first-time and frequent travellers.
Swiss corporations continue to feel the ripple effects of the post-pandemic backlog: petition-based H/L/O visa appointments, essential for intra-company transfers and specialists, stand at 18 days—short enough for urgent deployments but still longer than the single-digit waits common before 2020.
Global-mobility managers are advised to monitor the embassy’s dashboard weekly and to remind travellers that the published figure covers the gap between scheduling and the first available slot; administrative processing after the interview can add days or weeks. Executives who need to combine a U.S. trip with onward travel to Canada or Mexico should therefore build extra buffer time into itineraries.
The U.S. mission repeated that emergency appointment requests remain possible for medical workers, students facing immovable start dates and travellers with funerals to attend, provided documentary proof is supplied.
