In India, you can reschedule a U.S. nonimmigrant visa appointment once at no extra cost. A second reschedule, or missing your interview without canceling, forfeits your application fee and forces you to pay again before you can book a new slot. The policy took effect on January 1, 2025, and it applies at every U.S. consular post in India.
The One-Free-Reschedule Rule
The U.S. Embassy and Consulates in India give you exactly one free reschedule per appointment. Use it, and any further date change costs you a fresh Machine Readable Visa (MRV) fee. Emergency and diplomatic cases are exempt from the limit; everyone else lives by it.
The rule covers all nonimmigrant categories: B1/B2 visitor visas, F and M student visas, J exchange visas, H-1B and other petition-based work visas, and L intracompany transfers. The consulate doesn’t weigh your reason. A rescheduling because of a family emergency counts the same as one because you found a cheaper flight.
What triggers the count is confirmation, not browsing. Logging into the portal and looking at open dates changes nothing. The reschedule registers only when you select a new slot and confirm it, so if you’re unsure whether to move your date, close the tab and think it over first.
What a Second Reschedule Actually Costs
If you burn your free reschedule and need to change dates again, you pay the MRV fee from scratch. The amount depends on your visa type:
- $185 for most non-petition visas, including B1/B2, F, M, and J.
- $205 for petition-based work visas: H, L, O, P, Q, and R.
- $315 for E treaty trader and investor visas.
- $265 for K fiancé(e) and spouse visas.
The MRV fee is non-refundable and non-transferable. It stays valid for one year from the date of payment, and your interview must fall within that window.1U.S. Department of State. Fees for Visa Services That one-year clock is the trap most people don’t see coming. If the earliest slot after your reschedule falls beyond the anniversary of your original payment, you’ll pay again even though you haven’t touched your free reschedule. At posts with long queues, check the calendar before you confirm.
How to Reschedule
All nonimmigrant appointment scheduling in India runs through the third-party portal at ais.usvisa-info.com, which the U.S. Embassy directs applicants to use.2U.S. Embassy & Consulates in India. Visas Sign in with your existing credentials, open the reschedule option, pick a new date and time, and confirm. You’ll get an on-screen message and a confirmation email; keep both. If the details look wrong, contact the appointment service center rather than trying another change through the portal.
If No Slots Are Open
Availability swings wildly by city and season. When nothing looks good, don’t spend your free reschedule on a bad date just to move. Applicants cancel constantly, so new openings appear on a rolling basis. Check back at different times of day.
Switching Consulates Uses Your One Change
India has five U.S. consular posts that handle visa interviews: Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. The portal shows availability across all of them, and moving to a post with a shorter queue is often worth doing. Just know that a location change still counts as your one free reschedule, so weigh the shorter wait against the cost of traveling to another city for your interview.
If You Miss Your Interview
A no-show carries the same financial hit as a second reschedule. You lose your MRV fee and pay again to book a new appointment. Illness, a delayed flight, forgetting the date entirely: the outcome is the same.
If you know you can’t make it, cancel through the portal before the appointment date. Canceling doesn’t rescue your free reschedule; you still pay a new fee to rebook. It does keep your record clean. The consulate tracks no-shows, and while one won’t block a future application, repeat patterns are worth avoiding.
Your DS-160 Stays Valid
Your DS-160 doesn’t expire on the same timeline as your fee. The barcode on the confirmation page is what the officer uses to pull up your case, and it stays accessible through a reschedule.3U.S. Department of State. DS-160 Frequently Asked Questions You don’t need to submit a new form just because your date moved. If something on the form has actually changed, though, such as your employer, address, or travel plans, file a corrected DS-160 and bring both confirmation pages to the interview.
Emergencies: The Expedited Track
Genuine emergencies fall outside the reschedule cap. The State Department considers expedited appointments for urgent, unforeseen situations: a medical emergency requiring U.S. treatment, a funeral for an immediate family member in the U.S., sudden business travel supported by employer documentation, and academic start dates you’d otherwise miss.
The process requires you to first submit your DS-160, pay the MRV fee, and book the earliest regular appointment available. Only then can you submit an expedite request with supporting documents through the portal.4U.S. Department of State. Visa Appointment Wait Times Approval comes by email with booking instructions.
Some situations explicitly don’t qualify: weddings, graduation ceremonies, assisting a pregnant relative, annual conferences, and last-minute tourism.4U.S. Department of State. Visa Appointment Wait Times “Unforeseen” is the operative word. Events you’ve known about for months don’t count.
Immigrant Visas Work Differently
The one-free-reschedule rule is a nonimmigrant policy. If you’re attending an immigrant visa interview, your appointment is scheduled by the National Visa Center, and rescheduling happens through the U.S. Embassy’s website rather than the NVC.5U.S. Embassy & Consulates in India. Immigrant Visas The embassy has not published a specific limit on how many times an immigrant visa appointment can be rescheduled.6U.S. Department of State. Appointment Immigrant cases still involve documents with their own expiration dates, such as medical exams and civil documents, so repeated delays create their own problems even without a formal cap.