US B1/B2 visa from India: DS-160, slot booking and the interview, step by step

Getting a US visitor visa from India is not hard, but it is long, and most of the pain comes from small process mistakes rather than the interview itself. This guide walks through the whole thing in the order you’ll do it, with the traps applicants run into most often.

It draws on first-hand reports applicants have shared publicly, including one widely shared end-to-end account from a young software engineer in Delhi who was approved for a 10-year B1/B2, and on our own analysis of 94 real B1/B2 interview reports.

Rules, fees and portals change often. Before you pay or book anything, check the official pages linked below.

The process at a glance

1. Fill in and submit the DS-160 online application.
2. Create an account on the scheduling portal, enter your details, choose how you’ll get your passport back, and pay the visa fee.
3. Book two appointments: biometrics (at the Visa Application Centre, VAC or OFC) and the interview (at the embassy or a consulate).
4. Attend biometrics, then the interview.
5. If approved, track your visa and passport delivery.

Step 1: The DS-160

The DS-160 is filled in on the State Department’s Consular Electronic Application Center.

• Pick a location in India to start. The city you choose here only sets the country. You can book your interview in a different Indian city later.
• Write down your application number and security answer straight away. You need both to get back into the form. The application number is shown in the top corner of every page.
• Save every few minutes. The site logs you out after a short period of inactivity and unsaved answers are lost.
• You don’t have to finish in one sitting. A saved application stays retrievable as long as you come back to it; each time you save, the 30-day expiry window resets. Applicants commonly fill it in early and update details closer to the interview.
• Submit before you create your scheduling account. Under current rules the scheduling portal needs a submitted DS-160. Before moving on, log out and confirm you can retrieve your application with the number and security answer. If you can’t, start a new one now: the scheduling portal allows only one account per passport, and untangling a mismatch means contacting support.

Everything you enter should match your passport exactly. Your answers here are what the officer reads before you speak, so be accurate about your job, salary, trip dates, who you’re visiting and your travel history.

Step 2: The scheduling portal and the fee

India uses usvisascheduling.com (type the full address with www.).

• Create your account with the same details as your passport and DS-160, and three security questions. Keep a note of all of it.
• Your profile can’t be edited after you submit it. Check names, passport number and dates twice.
• Choose document delivery carefully. This is how your passport comes back after the interview: home delivery for a fee paid on arrival, or pickup from a location you choose. You can’t change it later, and the pickup location doesn’t depend on where you had your appointments.
• Pay the fee once. The B1/B2 application fee has been US$185 (check the current fee before paying). Card and UPI are the quickest. If a payment seems to fail, do not pay again: fees aren’t refundable. Wait for it to resolve, or contact the help desk. The fee is valid for a year from payment, so you don’t have to book immediately.

Step 3: Booking your slots

This is the slow part. Wait times for B1/B2 interviews in Indian cities have often run past a year; check the current numbers on the State Department’s visa wait times page.

You book two appointments in one go. In India, biometrics (photo and fingerprints at the VAC/OFC) and the interview (at the embassy or consulate) are separate. The interview has to fall within 30 days after biometrics, and the two can be in different cities. You choose the biometrics slot first, then the interview slot, then confirm both.

Reschedules are limited. Since January 2025 you get very few attempts (one reschedule after your first booking at the time of writing), so don’t book a date you can’t make.

If you get biometrics but no interview slot, don’t panic. The portal holds the biometrics slot for a short while; if you can’t find an interview slot, it’s released automatically, and applicants report this isn’t counted as one of their attempts.

Getting an earlier date is mostly patience and luck. What applicants consistently report:

• Earlier slots appear when appointments are released or cancelled. Checking a few times a day, at different times, works better than refreshing constantly.
• Logging in too often can trigger access limits. A private window or a different network often gets you back in.
• Bulk releases (many dates and times at once) are the best chance of getting both appointments together. They don’t follow a published schedule.
• If a city shows no slots, switch to another city and back to refresh what’s shown.
• Be wary of paid “slot booking” agents and groups. You don’t need them, and you should never share your portal login.

Applying from another country to skip the queue is no longer a shortcut. Since September 2025 the State Department generally requires visa applicants to interview in their country of nationality or residence. Even before that, officers would ask why you weren’t applying at home, and “the wait was shorter” rarely helped.

Save your appointment confirmation page once both slots are booked.

Step 4: Biometrics at the VAC

• Arrive about 30 minutes early. Phones, smartwatches, car keys and other electronics aren’t allowed inside, so leave them with someone or use paid lockers if offered.
• Bring: your current passport (and old passports if you have them), the DS-160 confirmation page, the appointment confirmation page, and a government ID such as Aadhaar.
• What happens: a document check at the entrance, security screening, a barcode sticker on your passport (don’t remove it), then a counter where your photo and fingerprints are taken and your DS-160 confirmation page is stamped. When it’s quiet, the whole visit can take under 15 minutes.

Step 5: The interview

The same security rules apply at the embassy or consulate. Carry the passport with its sticker, the stamped DS-160 confirmation page and the appointment confirmation in a clear folder.

Supporting documents are optional, and officers often don’t look at them. (Full list: our B1/B2 documents checklist.) Bring what backs up your story: recent salary slips, bank statements, an employment letter, and, if you’re visiting someone, a copy of their passport and US visa. Printouts are fine. Don’t hand anything over unless you’re asked.

What the interview is like. It’s short and conversational, usually a few minutes at a window. In our analysis of 94 first-hand B1/B2 interview reports, the typical interview had about six questions and took about four minutes. These topics came up most:

Topic	Share of interviews
Purpose of the trip	89%
Your current job	68%
Travel history	57%
Family	51%
Income	41%

Two thirds opened with the purpose. Officers then drill into whatever matters in your story. In the Delhi applicant’s interview, for example, the officer went from “tourist visa?” to past trips abroad, then to the friend being visited (what she does, what she studies, how long she’s been in the US), then to the applicant’s job, graduation year, salary, who was paying, and whether they lived with their parents. Approved, in a couple of minutes.

What made that work wasn’t a rehearsed speech. Every answer was short, specific and consistent with the DS-160: a city and a duration, a named employer, a graduation month, a salary figure, a clear answer on who pays.

A few things to prepare for:

• If you’re visiting someone, know their details: what they do, which visa they hold, how long they’ve lived there, where. “What does your brother do?” followed by “What visa is he on?” is one of the most common sequences.
• Know your own numbers: salary, how long you’ve been in your job, who pays for the trip.
• Keep answers to a sentence or two. Officers often cut long answers short.
• Answer the question asked. If you’re asked whether you’ve travelled before, give the countries and years, not your life story.

If you’re approved, the officer keeps your passport. If you’re refused, you get your passport back with a slip explaining the section of law, most often 214(b) (not enough shown about ties to home). The other outcome is 221(g), administrative processing, when the officer needs another document or check.

Step 6: Tracking

• Visa status: use the CEAC status tracker. Typical progress is Application Received, then Approved, then Issued, often within a day or two.
• Passport delivery: the scheduling portal’s dashboard shows the courier status, and you can also track it on the courier’s site using the reference on your appointment confirmation. Applicants commonly receive their passports within a week of approval. Keep ID ready for the delivery, plus the delivery fee if you chose home delivery.

The short version

• Submit the DS-160 carefully, and confirm you can retrieve it, before creating your scheduling account.
• Your portal profile and delivery choice can’t be changed later.
• Never pay the fee twice.
• Book biometrics and the interview together, within 30 days of each other, and don’t waste reschedules.
• In the interview, give short, specific answers that match your DS-160.

Practise the interview out loud

The hardest part to prepare on your own is the back-and-forth: an officer who follows up on what you just said. VisaPrep runs a realistic B1/B2 mock interview by voice. The AI officer reads your application, asks the follow-ups a real officer would, and gives you a decision and a scorecard showing exactly what to fix. Your first interview is free.