The U.S. Now Sells a 10-Day Visa Interview for US$750 – Not in Brazil
United States
Key Facts
—Pilot availability The US$750 expedited appointment pilot is active only at Mission Mexico (Embassy and all consulates) as of 22 July 2026. It is not available in Brazil or any other Latin American country.
—Fee structure The non-refundable, non-transferable US$750 fee is paid on top of the standard US$185 MRV application fee. It buys an earlier interview only, with no advantage in adjudication or post-interview processing.
—Brazil wait times As of 2 August 2026, B1/B2 interview wait times in Brazil are approximately one month in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and under half a month in Recife and Porto Alegre – among the shortest in the hemisphere.
—Interview waiver eligibility B1/B2 renewal applicants who received a full-validity visa, apply within 12 months of expiry, and were at least 18 when the prior visa was issued remain eligible for dropbox processing without an interview.
—Visa Integrity Fee status A US$250 minimum Visa Integrity Fee was enacted by US law in July 2025, but the Department of Homeland Security has issued no implementing rule, and the fee is not currently being charged.
A new US State Department pilot program is selling US visa appointment slots within 10 business days for a US$750 surcharge – but the option is available exclusively in Mexico, not in Brazil or anywhere else in Latin America. Brazilian consumer articles claiming that Brazilians can now buy a 10-day appointment are false. The pilot, launched ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the run-up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, targets posts with the longest backlogs, and Brazil simply does not have that problem.
What the Pilot Actually Does – and Where It Operates
The Nonimmigrant Visa Expedited Appointment Pilot Program was created by a State Department Temporary Final Rule, Public Notice 13003, published in the Federal Register on 9 June 2026 (91 FR 34768). It runs from 1 July 2026 to 31 December 2026 and is explicitly a pilot, not a permanent program. The fee is US$750 per applicant per appointment – approximately R$3,800 at an exchange rate of 5.07 reais to the dollar – and appears as item 26 on the Schedule of Fees, labeled ‘Nonimmigrant Visa Appointment Expedite Fee.’
The program covers B1/B2 business and tourist visas only. It does not apply to F, M, J, H, L, or any other visa category. The State Department projects roughly 25,000 expedited appointments worldwide across the entire six-month pilot, which at US$750 per appointment would generate approximately US$18.75 million in revenue.
The official travel.state.gov pilot page, last updated 22 July 2026, lists exactly one participating mission: ‘Mission Mexico (Embassy and all consulates) – 7/21/26.’ The page notes that additional pilot locations may be announced throughout the pilot period, and it is theoretically possible that Brazil could be added before 31 December 2026, but nothing has been announced. For now, the US$750 option simply does not exist at any Brazilian consular post.
How the Expedited Appointment Works Where It Exists
To use the paid expedite, an applicant must first pay the standard US$185 MRV fee and book a normal appointment. After signing into the scheduling system, the applicant clicks Continue, selects Request Expedite, and then chooses Paid Expedite. The option only appears if the applicant’s country is in the pilot and expedited slots are available that day. Once a slot is selected, the applicant has 10 minutes to complete payment or the hold is released.
The US$750 fee is non-refundable, non-transferable, cannot be rescheduled, and can only be used once. Critically, it buys an earlier interview only. The State Department states explicitly that the same screening and vetting standards apply, there is no advantage in the adjudication decision, and there is no faster post-interview processing. Interview-waiver applicants – those eligible for dropbox renewal – are not eligible for the paid expedite. Free humanitarian and urgent-travel expedites remain available at both pilot and non-pilot posts for those who genuinely qualify.
Brazil’s Wait Times Are Among the Shortest in the Hemisphere
The reason the pilot launched in Mexico and not Brazil is straightforward: Mexico’s border posts have some of the longest B1/B2 wait times in the world. The State Department’s Global Visa Wait Times page is refreshed only periodically, and the figures for individual Mexican posts move between updates, so The Rio Times is not quoting a month-by-month figure for each one. What is consistent across every version of the table is the pattern: the northern border posts – Ciudad Juarez, Matamoros, Hermosillo – together with Guadalajara and Mexico City have run at multi-month waits for B1/B2 interviews, several of them among the longest anywhere in the world. Readers should check the official page for the figure applying to their own post on the day they book.
Brazilian posts, by contrast, are remarkably fast. São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro each show a one-month wait. Brasília is at 1.5 months. Recife and Porto Alegre are both under half a month. For context, Bogotá and Lima each report nine-month waits, Santiago is at 4.5 months, and Buenos Aires is under half a month. The State Department only publishes an average-wait figure where the next appointment is more than three months away, so a blank average means the post is under three months – a good sign, not missing data.
The key takeaway for readers in Brazil is that most do not have the problem the US$750 fee is designed to solve. A one-month wait for a tourist visa interview is, by regional standards, excellent.
What a Reader in Brazil Should Actually Do
For the vast majority of Brazilian applicants, the best strategy is simple. First, check the real wait time – São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are at about one month, and most people should simply book a regular appointment. Second, check dropbox renewal eligibility. Under the current Interview Waiver rule, effective 1 October 2025, B1/B2 renewals remain eligible for interview-free processing if the prior visa was issued for full validity, the applicant applies within 12 months of its expiry, and the applicant was at least 18 when the prior visa was issued. In Brazil, qualifying applicants drop documents at the Applicant Service Center (CASV) in Brasília, Rio de Janeiro, or São Paulo.
Third, refresh for cancellations. The State Department’s own wait-times page advises that posts release additional slots regularly and applicants should check back and move their appointment to an earlier slot. Fourth, consider a different Brazilian post. Recife and Porto Alegre are both under half a month, and moving cities inside Brazil is entirely legitimate – unlike moving countries, which is not. Fifth, request a free emergency expedite if you genuinely qualify due to the death or grave illness of an immediate relative, urgent medical treatment in the United States, or a school start date. You must book a regular appointment first, then request the expedite.
Finally, do not pay US$750 to anyone in Brazil. The option is not offered at Brazilian posts. Anyone selling a paid expedite in Brazil is either reselling a normal appointment or running a scam.
Bot and Fixer Warning: The Real Risk Is a Visa Refusal
Paid appointment-hunter bots and despachantes are prohibited, and this is not a grey area. The ustraveldocs terms of use explicitly bar crawlers, bots, and scripts. The US Embassy in Santo Domingo stated on 29 September 2025 that it is aware of individuals attempting to manipulate the visa appointment system through bots and other unauthorised methods, and that consequences include appointment cancellation, visa refusal, and visa cancellation. The US Mission in India canceled roughly 2,000 bot-booked appointments, declaring zero tolerance for agents and fixers that violate scheduling policies.
The real risk is not simply losing money to a fixer. A visa refusal or revocation also disqualifies the applicant from the dropbox renewal path, which requires that the applicant has never been refused a visa. For Brazilian travelers who rely on the 10-year B1/B2 validity and the interview-waiver renewal channel, a single bad decision to use a bot or pay an unauthorized agent can permanently close the easiest renewal route.
Fees, the Visa Integrity Fee, and What Is Not Changing
The standard MRV fee for B1/B2 visas is US$185 – approximately R$937 – and has been unchanged since May 2023. Claims circulating online that the fee rose from US$160 to US$185 on 30 May 2026 are false; that is the March 2023 rule re-dated by content farms. The State Department’s own June 2026 rule confirms the MRV fee ‘was last updated in May 2023 and is currently set at $185.’ Petition-based H, L, O, P, Q, and R visas carry a US$205 MRV fee, and E-category visas are US$315. MRV receipts are valid for one year, so applicants who paid less than a year ago can reschedule into a regular slot without paying again.
A Visa Integrity Fee of at least US$250 – about R$1,267 – was enacted by Section 100007 of Public Law 119-21, the July 2025 US reconciliation law signed on 4 July 2025, and codified at 8 USC 1806. However, it is not currently being charged. The collecting agency is the Department of Homeland Security, not the State Department; DHS has issued no implementing rule, and the fee does not appear on the State Department fee schedule. There is no statutory 1 October 2025 start date – that is a widespread misreading. The statute says DHS ‘may’ provide reimbursement, making any refund discretionary, and no mechanism exists.
Brazilian B1/B2 validity remains unchanged at 120 months – 10 years – with multiple entry and no reciprocity fee. This should not be confused with Brazil’s own separate 2026 e-visa and tourist-tax changes for inbound US, Canadian, and Australian travelers, which is an unrelated story in the opposite direction. Social media screening rules, which require F, M, J, H-1B, and H-4 applicants to disclose five years of handles and set profiles to public, do not apply to B1/B2 tourists, though expanded screening applies to all applicants.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I pay US$750 to get a faster US visa appointment in Brazil?
No. The US$750 Nonimmigrant Visa Appointment Expedite Fee pilot is currently available only at Mission Mexico. It is not offered at any Brazilian consular post. Anyone in Brazil claiming to sell this service is either reselling a normal appointment or running a scam.
How long is the B1/B2 visa interview wait in Brazil right now?
As of 2 August 2026, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro show approximately one-month waits. Brasília is at 1.5 months. Recife and Porto Alegre are both under half a month. These are among the shortest wait times in the Western Hemisphere.
Am I eligible to renew my US tourist visa without an interview in Brazil?
You are eligible for interview-waiver dropbox processing if your prior B1, B2, or B1/B2 visa was issued for full validity, you apply within 12 months of its expiry, you were at least 18 when the prior visa was issued, you apply in your country of nationality or usual residence, and you have never been refused a visa. Qualifying applicants in Brazil drop documents at CASV locations in Brasília, Rio de Janeiro, or São Paulo.
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Correction, 2 August 2026: An earlier version of this article gave specific month-by-month B1/B2 interview waits for six Mexican consular posts and dated the State Department’s wait-times table to 15 April 2026. Those per-post figures and that date could not be verified against the official page, and have been removed. The Brazilian wait times reported in this article – about one month in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, 1.5 months in Brasília and under half a month in Recife and Porto Alegre – are unchanged and were confirmed.
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Sources: US State Department.
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