Following a prolonged and unprecedented closure of the US Consulate General, Sydney, for nearly one full year, as part of a planned relocation from the MLC Centre in the Sydney CBD to a new facility in North Sydney, the US Consulate resumed operations at its new facility in June 2022.
Here is a summary of where the US Consulate Sydney stands in terms of visa processing at the time of writing (2 August 2022):
- E-3 visa interview availability is currently from October 12 onwards. This represents a wait time of more than three months, which is historically quite long, but relatively the best in Australia and consistent with most US Consulates globally.
- Emergency requests are possible, especially for F-1 students within 14 days of their start date, but still challenging and limited.
- B-1/B-2 (Visitor) visas are not a priority and it shows. Wait times for an interview exceed one year. Contact us if you’d like to apply elsewhere sooner, such as at the US Consulate Fiji, Singapore, or elsewhere.
- E-2 (Treaty Investor) visa services have resumed – wait times are about 6 weeks for an interview and response times following submission have markedly improved.
- Mail-in (Interview Waiver & Renewals) are operating quickly now, so mail-in if you are eligible. Sydney is operating faster than Melbourne now.
As it stands, the US Consulate Sydney is now the best option in Australia (vs Melbourne and Perth) but there is still a ways to go to return to the standard pre-pandemic.
Visa Statistics – Nonimmigrant – Sydney – June 2022
The US State Department releases monthly statistics for nonimmigrant visas by post (Consulate) and class (e.g., E-3). From these reports we can assess the productivity of individual Consulates.
The latest report, June 2022, can be found here.
Key figures are showing that Sydney has definitely resumed visa operations, and will likely show in July a full return to ‘routine’ settings.
In June 2022, the US Consulate Sydney issued:
| Visa class | Number of visas issued |
| B-1/B-2 (Visitor) | 218 |
| E-3 | 67 |
| E-2 Treaty Investor | 12 |
| E-3 Returning (renewals) | 12 |
| L-1 Intracompany Transfer | 18 |
| F-1 (Student) | 242 |
These numbers show the emphasis on getting students their visas before the Autumn semester begins in August/September in the US. From here onwards we expect much larger E-3 and E-2 numbers in Sydney.
