A US visitor visa, explained properly
The US visa is unlike every other application on this site. There is no file a caseworker reads at leisure, no appeal, and no document that wins it for you. There is a conversation of a few minutes with a consular officer, and a law that starts by assuming you intend to stay.
Two numbers decide most of the planning. If you are approved, a Pakistani passport receives a five-year multiple-entry visa. And right now, getting in front of an officer in Islamabad takes the better part of a year. Everything below follows from those two facts.
What a Pakistani passport actually gets
The US State Department publishes a reciprocity schedule for every country. It is public, it is specific, and almost no agency page in Pakistan mentions it — which is why people arrive expecting a six-month visa.
| Visa class | Entries | Validity | Issuance fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| B-1 (business) | Multiple | 60 months | None |
| B-2 (tourism, family) | Multiple | 60 months | None |
| B-1/B-2 (both) | Multiple | 60 months | None |
Five years, as many entries as you like, and no extra issuance fee on top of the application fee. That is the standard grant for a Pakistani national, and it changes the arithmetic completely: the cost and the wait are painful once, then you have five years of travel.
It also explains why this application deserves real preparation. You are not applying for one trip.
The interview queue — plan around this, not around your trip
This is the single most important thing on the page, and the thing other sites leave out because it makes the service look slow.
| Post | Average wait for a visitor visa interview | Next available appointment |
|---|---|---|
| Islamabad | 10.5 months | 12.5 months |
| Karachi | 7.5 months | 7.5 months |
| Lahore | No visitor visa interviews — see below | |
Source and date. US Department of State Global Visa Wait Times, read on 10 October 2026, where the figures were marked last updated 17 September 2026. These move constantly and are the fastest-changing number on this page. The State Department's own definition: the average is how long applicants actually waited in the previous month, and the next-available figure is a prediction, not a guarantee.
What this means in practice
Any advice telling you to apply "three months before travel" for a US visa from Pakistan is out of date. If you want to travel next summer, you should be paying the fee and booking now.
It also means you should not wait for a reason to travel. Because the visa comes with five years of validity, applying while you have no fixed trip is the sensible order of operations — the queue is the constraint, not your itinerary. And do not, under any circumstances, book a non-refundable ticket around an interview date.
What it costs
The US government charges one fee for a Pakistani visitor visa: the MRV application fee of USD 185. It has been USD 185 since June 2023. The reciprocity schedule shows no issuance fee for any B class for Pakistan, so there is no second government payment on approval.
You pay it in rupees, at the consular exchange rate, in cash at any Bank Alfalah branch or by card or bank transfer. Two things worth knowing:
- It is not refundable, whatever the outcome.
- The receipt is valid for 365 days. You must schedule the interview within that year — the interview itself can fall later, which matters a great deal given the current queue.
Our own charge for preparing the application is quoted separately, as everywhere else on this site.
Where you apply — and where you cannot
- US Embassy Islamabad — Diplomatic Enclave, Ramna 5. Takes visitor visa interviews.
- US Consulate General Karachi — Mai Kolachi Road. Takes visitor visa interviews.
- US Consulate General Lahore — does not conduct visa interviews. It appears in the system only as a document drop-off and passport collection point for interview-waiver applicants.
- Peshawar — closed; responsibility for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sits with the Embassy in Islamabad.
You apply in the consular district where you normally live, and you choose the post at the very beginning of the DS-160. The post on the form must match the post where you book, or you will not be able to attend.
Given the gap in the queue between the two posts, people in the Karachi district should be aware they are currently in the shorter one.
How the application works
One appointment, not two. Pakistan has no separate biometrics centre for US visas — fingerprints are taken at the interview itself.
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Complete the DS-160 online
One form per applicant, including children. Submit it at least two business days before the interview and keep the printed confirmation page with the barcode — without it you are not admitted.
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Pay the USD 185 fee
In rupees, at Bank Alfalah or by card. You need the DS-160 barcode first, and the receipt before you can schedule.
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Book the interview
Scheduling for Pakistan runs on usvisascheduling.com. Be aware that the US Embassy's own website still describes the older system; the scheduling portal is the one that works. Reschedules are limited in number, so treat the first booking as the real one.
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Attend the interview
At Islamabad or Karachi, with fingerprints taken on the day. See the section below on what you may and may not bring, because this is where people lose their appointment.
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Passport return
By courier or collection at the point you selected. Routine processing after approval is quick; a case placed in administrative processing usually resolves within about sixty days.
Documents, including the two only Pakistan is asked for
There is no official checklist for a US visitor visa, and that is not an oversight — the officer decides on a conversation, not a folder. You may be asked for none of this. You prepare it because you may be asked, and because assembling it is how you work out what your own answer is.
Everyone needs these
The application
Required, no exceptions- DS-160 confirmation page with the barcode — no entry without it
- Passport, plus previous passports carrying your travel history
- A photograph to specification
- The USD 185 fee receipt
Pakistan only
Not in the global list- A ten-year travel history — every country you have visited in the last decade
- A list of your siblings and children
What you bring anyway
To support what you say- Evidence you can afford the trip, from an account genuinely yours
- If someone in the US is inviting or hosting you, their details and status
- Nothing is handed over in a folder — it is there in case the officer asks
What the officer is weighing, by profile
If you are salaried
Your answer to “what do you do, and will the job still be there”- An employer letter with your role, salary, length of service and approved leave dates
- Recent salary slips and the account they are paid into
- How long you have been there — length of service argues for you more than salary does
- For a government employee, the departmental NOC
If you own a business
Your answer to “who runs it while you are away”- Business registration, NTN and tax returns — a business that pays tax is a business that exists
- Business bank statements separate from personal
- A clear, short account of what the business does and who holds it together without you
- A business that visibly needs you back is one of the strongest things a Pakistani applicant can show
If you are retired
Your answer to “what brings you back” when there is no job- Pension documents and the statements showing the pension arriving
- Property and any other income with its paperwork
- Family in Pakistan who depend on you — this weighs more for a retired applicant than for anyone else
- Travel history on old passports, which matters more the less current income you show
If you are a student or dependent
The hardest profile, because the ties argued are mostly someone else’s- Enrolment proof and a letter confirming you are expected back for the next term
- Your sponsor’s full documents — what they do, what they earn, how they are related to you
- Why the trip is happening now and why you return, in your own words
- Be ready to answer about your own plans after study, because the question will come
On the day — the practical things that waste appointments
No phones, and nowhere to leave them
Mobile phones, smart watches, tablets, cameras, large bags, food, liquids and sealed envelopes are not allowed inside, and neither post has storage. If you arrive with a phone you will be turned away to find somewhere to leave it, with an appointment you waited months for.
In Islamabad there is no parking near the consular section and everyone must take the official shuttle from 3rd Avenue, Quaid-e-Azam University Road. Be at the shuttle building thirty minutes before your appointment. In Karachi, arrive fifteen minutes before.
Nobody may accompany you. Karachi allows one attendant for a minor under 18 or an applicant with a physical disability, asked for at the entrance on the day.
Interview waiver, and the trap in it
Renewing without an interview — what everyone calls dropbox — is still available to Pakistani applicants. But the rule changed in 2025 and a great deal of published advice has not caught up.
You may qualify if
- You are renewing a B-1, B-2 or B-1/B-2 that is still valid, or expired within the past 12 months
- You were at least 18 when that previous visa was issued
- All ten fingerprints were taken when it was issued
- The previous visa was not lost, stolen or revoked
- You have never been refused, unless that refusal was overcome or waived
- You are applying in your district of residence
What changed, and why it matters
- The window used to be 48 months. It is now 12
- The age exemptions are gone — since August 2025 applicants under 14 and over 79 generally need an interview too
- The US Embassy's own Pakistan page still says 48 months. It is out of date
- Eligibility is not approval: an officer can still call you in, and can still refuse
If you do qualify, the route is the DS-160, a profile on the scheduling portal, the fee, then a printed interview-waiver confirmation letter and your documents dropped at the partner office named in the letter — Islamabad, Karachi or Lahore. Note the photograph rule: eyeglasses are no longer permitted in the picture.
If you are refused under 214(b)
Almost every visitor visa refusal in Pakistan is under section 214(b), and understanding it saves people a great deal of wasted money.
The law begins by presuming that every B-1/B-2 applicant intends to immigrate, and places the burden on you to show otherwise. A 214(b) refusal means you did not overcome that presumption — most often because you did not demonstrate a residence abroad you have no intention of abandoning.
Three things that follow, and nobody tells you
There is no appeal. The State Department says so plainly. The refusal attaches to that one application, and once the case is closed the consular section can take no further action on it.
You may reapply immediately, but you should not. Reapplying means a new DS-160, a new USD 185, a new interview and, in Islamabad, a new place at the back of a ten-month queue. The official guidance is that you must show "further evidence of your ties or how your circumstances have changed". Not a better folder — changed circumstances.
A 214(b) refusal is not about your documents. This is the part applicants resist hardest. Adding three more bank statements to the same situation does not change the situation. What changes it is time, a job, a business that has grown, a family here, a travel history built on other countries' visas used properly and returned from.
If you have been refused, send us the details and we will tell you honestly whether anything has changed enough to be worth another attempt. Often the right answer is to travel elsewhere first and build the record. Our visa consultancy page covers how we handle refused cases.
How long you can actually stay
Not as long as the visa. This confuses more people than any other part of the US system, so it is worth being exact.
The five-year validity on the visa is the period during which you may travel to a US port of entry and ask to be admitted. How long you may then remain is decided by a Customs and Border Protection officer when you arrive, and recorded on your admission stamp or Form I-94. In the State Department's own words, the visa expiration date "does not reflect how long you are authorized to stay within the United States".
The I-94 is the record that governs. Check it after every entry, because overstaying what it says puts you out of status and automatically voids the visa — even though the sticker in your passport still looks valid for years.
Four things being said that are not true
- "You must make your social media public." That instruction applies to a list of visa categories — students, exchange visitors, workers and several others. B-1/B-2 is not on it. Social media identifiers are asked for on the DS-160 worldwide, which is a different thing from being told to open your accounts.
- "Pakistanis are banned." The presidential proclamation restricting visa issuance for nationals of thirty-nine countries does not include Pakistan, in any category. Pakistan is also not on the list of nationalities for which interview waiver is suspended.
- "Dropbox is open for visas expired up to four years ago." That was the old rule. It is twelve months now.
- "An agent with a contact can get you an appointment." Appointments come from one system and officers decide visas. Anyone selling influence over either is selling you nothing, at a price.
How we prepare your file
There is no file to submit to a US consulate, which changes what useful help looks like. On a US application our work is: filling the DS-160 accurately, because inconsistencies there are what officers pick up on; assembling the ten-year travel history and the sibling and children list properly; working out whether you are better applying in Islamabad or Karachi given where you live and what the queues are doing; getting the appointment booked early enough to be realistic; and preparing you for a short conversation in which you will be asked what you do and why you are going.
And if your situation is one that will be refused today, we will say so before you spend USD 185 and ten months. Breeze Travels & Tours has worked on visa files from Davis Road, Garhi Shahu, since 2003. If your trip needs flights once the visa is in hand, the same desk issues them on our own IATA accreditation.