Mailing in your visa application? That option’s about to disappear for nearly everyone. 

Starting September 2, 2025, in-person interviews will once again be required for most U.S. visa applicants – including kids, seniors, and people just renewing. In this episode, Rosanna unpacks why this shift is happening, who it impacts, and why it’s more about optics than real security. It’s a policy change that’s going to cause major delays, and Rosanna’s here to help you plan ahead before the system gets overwhelmed.

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Transcript

Everyone’s talking about U.S. immigration law, but nobody really knows how it works. I’m Rosanna Berardi. I’m the daughter of an immigrant, a former immigration inspector at the border, university professor, and founder and managing partner of Berardi Immigration Law.

I’ve done nothing but U.S. immigration law for over 30 years, and it’s time to stop the misinformation on all sides. I’m going to tell you how it all works, the inside story. This is Immigration Weekly with Rosanna Berardi.

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Immigration Weekly with Rosanna Berardi. I’m your host, Rosanna Berardi.

I’m an immigration lawyer, entrepreneur, mom, founder of Berardi Immigration Law, and don’t forget, I spent five years at the U.S.-Canadian border working for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service. Welcome back to another episode. Remember, we peel back the headlines and give you the real story of what’s happening in the world of immigration.

Understanding the Shift

And so today, we’re going to dive into a policy shift, policy, not law, policy that’s going to impact millions of travelers, students, professionals around the globe. One that’s flown under the radar for the past five years, but will have really large consequences coming this fall. So recently, the U.S. Department of State announced that starting September 2nd, 2025, in a few short weeks, most U.S. visa applicants will have to apply for a visa in person, in person, in person, in person. In-person interviews are back. What does that mean? Well, there’s been this thing called the interview waiver or Dropbox program that allowed people to apply for the visas through the mail.

Simple, easy, quicker. Now, they’re undoing that process. So whether you’re a tech worker in India, a student heading to the U.S. to attend school this fall, or an HR manager, listen up because you need to understand this change. And we’re going to walk through what’s changing, who’s affected, who isn’t, how to plan ahead, blah, blah, blah, all that good stuff. So what’s changing and when? So think back to COVID.

The goal of everyone in COVID was to stay away from one another due to the transmission of the virus. So that included the U.S. Department of State. They said, if you’re applying for a visa to enter the United States, we’re going to waive the in-person requirement.

That meant you could apply through the mail. People love this. This was a great pandemic era solution.

It reduced crowding at the embassies, limited health risks, and helped the counselor posts through enormous backlogs. Now, what’s a visa? A visa is a stamp, not really a stamp.

It looks like a sticker with your name on it, your home country, biographical info, and the category to which you apply to admission in the United States. Most people entering the United States need a visa from abroad. Now, if you’re Canadian, Canadians, listen up.

This does not apply to you. No, you don’t need this. Don’t worry about it.

Don’t go on TV or on Twitter or whatever and say, I don’t know any visas. You don’t. Canadians, this one is not for you.

But if you’re abroad, you need to go to a U.S. embassy or consulate in your home country and you need to make that application. So back in COVID times and since then, we’ve done this visa waiver, meaning people could apply through the mail, help thousands of applicants, cleared up backlogs for high demand categories like the H-1B or the L-1. People did it through the mail.

The Impact of In-Person Requirements

Well, guess what? That is changing effective September 2nd. September 2nd, what does this mean?

You’re going to have to book your appointment and show up. Okay. Why is this a huge deal?

Well, it requires an in-person appointment when before you could just use the mail. Why is it a big deal? This is an administration that has sliced the staffing at the Department of State, including embassies and consulates worldwide.

First-time applicants and renewals, even if you’ve had a visa before, this applies to all the categories, H-1Bs, Ls, T, I’m sorry, F-1s, O-1s. Here’s the big one, kids under 14 and adults over 79. For the love of God, you’re going to have to go in person.

This is just dumb. I’m sorry. I’m going to call it like I see it.

This one’s dumb. Why? Remember my theory, the immigration world, the house is on fire, we’re worried about the curtains.

Why do I think this is dumb? I think it’s dumb because people applying for visas are applying, they’re following the rules. Government’s going to argue that they’re going to catch criminals and terrorists, maybe a handful, but for the millions of other people that are trying to be law-abiding, not a fan.

Okay. So these in-person visa appointments, why is this happening now? Well, if you’ve been a fan of the podcast or if you watch me on social media for the last 20 years, you’ll understand why.

This is a political move, right? Let’s remember, this is an administration that was elected based on their commitment to fixing immigration once and for all. This visa mail-in program wasn’t intended to be permanent.

It was a COVID reaction, a COVID fix, a temporary emergency measure. Well, if you follow the Trump administration, all of these temporary issues, temporary protected status, parole in place, now the visa interview waiver, these are all temporary measures. They’re now saying enough of the temporary stuff, let’s get back to business.

Why else? Why are they doing this now? Well, they want to enforce the immigration law, tighten scrutiny on the visa applications.

They’re thinking face-to-face vetting, officers reviewing the documents in person is really going to result in finding the aha criminals, terrorists. I’m not trying to downplay that. That’s very serious.

But the reality is, you can look this up online, the average visa interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate is less than five minutes. These officers have a ton of people to get through, a ton of backlog of documents. This is going to make things clunky and slow.

Preparing for What’s Next

Why is this happening also? Well, this is an administration of restriction. We’ve seen the visa integrity fee, 250 bucks additional.

You must also now apply for your visa in person. This was all coming through the one big beautiful bill. This is a promise by Congress to tighten up national security, accountability, who’s coming into the U.S. And really the biggest issue of why? Public perception. If you say to the average person, hey, listen, instead of letting people mail in their documents, we’re going to talk to them in person. Yeah, it makes sense.

It sounds better. But there’s really no proof or statistics or evidence out there that in-person interviews actually reduce fraud, misrepresentation, result in criminal findings. But it does sound good from a policy perspective.

Think about it. We’re bringing back face-to-face interviews. Yes, that makes sense.

However, if you live in my world, it’s just going to create a hot mess in a situation that’s already a disaster on a good day. Look, the counselor posts, they’re overwhelmed. They’ve always been.

They need more workers. Applicants face huge wait times. Students, you know, this is sensitive for students to enter the United States.

Families, workers. The why behind all of this, I guess, is a good argument in theory. In reality, I don’t like this one, but the Department of State didn’t ask me.

So on September 2nd, this is going to be happening. So what should you do? Well, if you need a visa, if you’ve had one already issued, apply today.

Don’t wait. The time’s going to get worse. This applies to 99% of the people.

The exceptions and the carve-outs are really limited to diplomats, people that are here by way of diplomatic protocols. Those individuals will be safe, but everyone else is going to have to apply in person rather than by mail effective September 2nd. What does this mean for you?

This means let’s get going. What does it also mean for you? If you have children under 14, now you’re going to have to take them to the U.S. consulate in your home country. What a pain. Lots of security. Lots of kids yelling and screaming.

Elder people over 79. Is this really the target? Is this the problem in the United States?

I’ll argue all day it’s not, but it’s going to take longer. It’s going to be more expensive for families. So you really need to pay attention on the timing.

Make sure you build in a buffer. If you are an employer and you’re planning to bring people in from, you know, Poland or other countries, what have you, build in that buffer. Plan early.

Communicate clearly. We’re watching this very, very closely. The effective date is September 2nd.

The government sometimes rolls this back. Probably not on this one. Bottom line, you know, starting September 2nd, the in-person visa interviews are coming back.

We handle lots of these. We’re going to keep you up to date on what’s happening, why this is happening, political optics. Will the government tighten up immigration and who’s coming to the U.S. as a result of this? Not really sure, but lots of public optics here. So again, this is Immigration Weekly with Rosanna Berardi. This is how it’s happening, why it’s happening, when it’s happening.

Be the smartest person at your dinner table and make sure you tell your employers, your employees, your friends, your family that this change is happening. It’s certainly an important one and we’ll be following it closely. Until the next time, have a great day.

This was Immigration Weekly with Rosanna Berardi. Thanks for joining. Be sure to connect with me, Rosanna Berardi, on LinkedIn or go to our law firm at berardiimmigrationlaw.com.

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