state-department
Every record this desk has filed under state-department, newest first, each with the number of sources it can still show you.
The average wait for a U.S. visitor-visa interview was 201 days in fiscal 2025, up from 26 days in 2019, while the consular officers who mainly handle temporary visas fell from 1,342 to 904 in a year, GAO reports; it counts one global staffing review State conducted and carried out since 2019, and State neither agreed nor disagreed with GAO's call to require it.
On September 28 the Government Accountability Office reported that the average wait to get a U.S. visitor-visa interview was 201 days in fiscal 2025, almost eight times the 26 days of fiscal 2019, while visitor-visa decisions rose to 11.7 million from 9.2 million. Consular officers spending most of their time on temporary visas fell from 1,342 in fiscal 2024 to 904 in 2025, which GAO attributes to hiring freezes and attrition. In India, 68 such officers faced 1,455,255 applications and a 346-day average wait; Colombia's average was 597 days. State's Global Repositioning Exercise, meant to move consular positions to where the demand is, is not required by law, regulation or policy, State officials told GAO, and GAO counts one conducted and carried out since 2019. GAO recommends requiring it. State neither agreed nor disagreed, and says it runs the exercise annually. A footnote puts the fiscal 2024 average at 246 days, so the wait shortened as staff fell; the report does not explain why. Since October 1, 2025, State says, most applicants must interview in person.
Also filed undergaovisastraveltourismfederal-workforce
GAO's priority list for the State Department went from thirteen to nine. Six were implemented. Two just stopped counting.
GAO released its annual priority-recommendations letter to the State Department today. Its own arithmetic: thirteen priority recommendations in April 2025, six implemented since, two whose priority status GAO removed, four added this month, nine open now. The summary sentence puts the six and the two side by side, and they are not the same event — one means the department acted, the other means GAO reassessed how much it mattered. A reader tracking whether anything got done needs them apart. What remains includes whether Ukraine used direct budget support funding as intended. The letter was finished on September 1 and released to the public on September 8; this desk cannot say how many of these letters exist across government, because GAO's recommendations database and its search both refuse an automated client.
Also filed undergaooversightaccountabilitymethod
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