US Embassy Islamabad

Visa interview wait times at US Embassy Islamabad, Pakistan. U.S. Department of State global-wait-time data published for March 2026 reports wait figures across 5 visa categories at this post. The headline number for tourism and short-term business travel, the average B1/B2 visitor interview wait, is currently 5.5 Months (≈ 5.5 months). The next-available B1/B2 appointment slot sits at 5.5 Months. These figures measure the interview-scheduling backlog only; actual case adjudication and administrative processing can add additional time before a visa is printed and returned.

Category-by-category contrast. Students and exchange visitors (F, M, and J classifications) currently face a next-available wait of 1 Month (≈ 1 month) at this post, category Pakistan applicants should plan academic start dates around. Employment-based applicants (H-1B, L-1, O-1, P, and Q) currently see a next-available wait of 1.5 Months (≈ 1.5 months), which adds on top of USCIS I-129 processing time before a petition-based worker can actually schedule their consular interview. Crew and transit (C/D/C1D) applicants face < 0.5 Month at this location. Because the State Department updates these numbers monthly, they can shift materially between snapshots.

Reading the spread. Across the categories reported at Embassy Islamabad, the longest wait runs at 5.5 Months (Visitor (B1/B2) — Average Wait) while the shortest runs at < 0.5 Month (Crew/Transit (C/D/C1D) — Next Available), a useful signal that embassy capacity is rationed across visa types. U.S. consular officers schedule interviews against available officer-hours at each post, so long waits often reflect workforce constraints, seasonal demand surges, or bilateral relationship factors rather than case-specific issues. Applicants should always cross-check travel.state.gov for the current snapshot, and, for petition-based workers, pair these interview-wait numbers with I-129 USCIS processing times to understand the full door-to-door timeline.

Where this post sits in the corpus. Among 43 posts with a published B1/B2 average wait, Embassy Islamabad ranks #20 by visitor backlog length (#1 = longest). On employment (H/L/O/P/Q) next-available waits it ranks #25 of 200. The two ranks sit close together, so visitor and employment interview backlogs move in step at this post more than at many others. Visitor interview availability is currently long by global standards (over ~3 months on the snapshot). Ranks are computed live from the same State Department snapshot shown above; they are interview-scheduling backlogs, not visa-approval predictions.