The waiting time for a routine tourist visa interview is more than one year.
The United States Consulate General in Guayaquil resumed interviews at this diplomatic headquarters for the issuance of visas, “although in volumes well below pre-pandemic levels.”
To a query made by this newspaper, the diplomatic office responded via email that both the United States Embassy in Quito and the United States Consulate General in Guayaquil now conduct routine visa interviews.
In Guayaquil, the interviews resumed last Monday, the first working day of 2022.
In a statement published on the website of the Embassy, it is stated that there is availability for all categories of visas.
To schedule an appointment you must access https://ais.usvisa-info.com/es-ec/niv and for immigrant visas, go to the Immigrant Visa section: https://ec.usembassy.gov/ en / visas-es / immigrant-visas /.
Since March 2020, the consular servers of the United States Embassy and Consulate General in Ecuador have processed more than 150,000 non-immigrant (tourism) visas for Ecuadorians. This figure is higher than the number of visas processed by almost all other US embassies and consulates around the world.
What happens to the people who, in the middle of a pandemic, the system assigned an appointment for 2023, should they wait or can they request an adjustment in the date? We asked and the answer was: Applicants can advance their appointment if an earlier date is available. They should monitor the website of the United States Embassy and Consulate in Ecuador for more details.
The current demand for United States visas is extremely high and the wait time for a routine interview for tourist visas is more than a year.
The diplomatic headquarters recalled the obligation to present the vaccination certificate against COVID-19 before entering the facilities of the United States Embassy or the United States Consulate General in compliance with the requirements of the Government of Ecuador in the framework of measures to stop the pandemic.
The statement recalls that in June 2021 the acceptance of visa renewal applications through the Interview Waiver Program (IWP) was temporarily suspended. “The Embassy in Quito and the Consulate General in Guayaquil plan to begin accepting a controlled number of new IWP applications as soon as COVID-19 conditions allow, in the first months of 2022.”
Student, work, and exchange visitor visas, as well as humanitarian emergencies, continue to be a priority for the United States Embassy and Consulate. These applicants are eligible for expedited interview appointments, as the evolution of the pandemic situation allows, the document adds verbatim.
For the Embassy and Consulate General of the United States in Ecuador, it is too early to say exactly how the omicron variant of COVID-19 will affect the processing of visas, it is an issue that is under evaluation.
Regarding travel by United States citizens to Ecuadorian territory, on December 31, 2021, the Travel Advisory of that country ratified in the Travel Notice that Ecuador remains at level 3 (reconsider travel) due to the high number of infections of COVID-19.
On December 31, it was alerted that since December 14, when the first case of the omicron variant was detected in Ecuador, the number of infections is increasing, so it is recommended that US citizens reconsider a trip to this nation, and in particular the realization of cruises.
In 2020, the recommendation of the United States to its citizens was not to travel to Ecuador. In that year, the highest number of deaths from COVID-19 was registered in the Andean country.
Travel Advisory of the United States took the country from level 4 to 3.
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