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Vivek Agnihotri questions lack of US student visa appointments
Post urge action over delays and asks for additional appointment slots.
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Ankita Baidya - Thu, 02, Jul 2026
- 03:53 EDT
- 56
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Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri has raised concerns over the shortage of U.S. student visa interview appointments for Indian applicants. / Facebook
Indian filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, along with academic Makarand R. Paranjape, have raised concerns over a shortage of U.S. student visa interview appointments for Indian applicants in posts addressed to the U.S. Embassy in India on social media platform X.
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Agnihotri said thousands of Indian students who have secured admission to U.S. universities and received their I-20 forms have been unable to book visa interview appointments because the scheduling portal has shown no available slots for weeks. He said many students now risk missing the start of their academic semester.
He asked the Embassy to clarify whether the delay stemmed from a technical issue, an administrative backlog, or a policy decision, and sought a timeline for when additional interview slots would become available.
Dear @USAmbIndia,
— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) July 1, 2026
Thousands of Indian students who have secured admission to U.S. universities and already received their I-20s are unable to book visa interview appointments because the @USAndIndia scheduling portal has shown no available slots for weeks.
Many now face the…
Responding to Agnihotri's post, Paranjape said there had been complaints about intermediary "agents" charging applicants to secure student visa interview appointments. He called for the practice to be investigated and tagged U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, the U.S. Embassy in India, and the Ministry of External Affairs.
This is a huge problem;
— Makarand R Paranjape, Ph.D. (Illinois) (@MakrandParanspe) July 1, 2026
I fear there's more to this than meets the eye.
There have been numerous complaints about "agents" taking money to fix appointment slots--
a malpractice that needs to be stopped?@SergioGor @USAndIndia @MEAIndia really need to look into this. https://t.co/2lY0ek7c3N
The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs announced in June 2025 that applicants for F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas, including student visas, would be required to make their social media profiles public as part of a mandatory online presence review. The Department said overseas missions would resume scheduling F, M, and J visa appointments once the new screening process was implemented.
The same requirement was extended to H-1B and H-4 visa applicants from Dec. 15, 2025, according to the Department's website.
According to NAFSA: Association of International Educators, the pause remained in place until visa appointment scheduling resumed around June 26, 2025. The organization said consular officers were instructed to "take the time necessary" for the expanded vetting process rather than meet previous processing benchmarks, a change expected to increase appointment wait times.
Separately, the U.S. Embassy in India's official X account has previously warned applicants against agents offering "guaranteed" visas or faster interview appointments for a fee.
The U.S. Embassy in India's official website states that expedited appointment slots are "very limited" and that, due to the high volume of requests, the Embassy "cannot accommodate all travelers prior to their planned travel dates, even if the purpose of travel is time sensitive." The Embassy's guidance directs applicants to request expedited appointments only through its official online appointment system after first securing a regular appointment date, and does not list use of a third-party agent as a valid channel for securing or expediting interviews.
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