Short answer
Yes, you can now pay $750 for a US visitor visa interview within ten business days, but as of 19 August 2026 only if you are applying at a US post in Mexico or Canada. The State Department's expedited-interview pilot runs from 1 July to 31 December 2026, covers B-1/B-2 applicants only, and has been switched on at two missions so far: Mission Mexico on 22 July 2026 and Mission Canada on 18 August 2026. Everywhere else in the world, the option does not exist yet, no matter what a search result implies.
The fee is charged on top of the $185 MRV fee, is capped at roughly 25,000 requests across the pilot, and buys speed only. It gives no advantage whatsoever in whether your visa is approved.
The pilot at a glance
- Fee
- $750, additional to the $185 MRV fee (total $935)
- What it buys
- An interview appointment within 10 business days, subject to capacity
- Runs
- 1 July 2026 to 31 December 2026
- Available at
- Mission Mexico from 22 July 2026 and Mission Canada from 18 August 2026: the embassies and every US consulate in both countries
- Categories
- B-1 and B-2 only
- Capacity
- Approximately 25,000 expedited requests across the pilot
- Effect on approval
- None. Adjudication, eligibility and security screening are unchanged
What the $750 actually buys
On 9 June 2026 the State Department published a temporary final rule creating an optional expedited-interview fee for visitor visa applicants. From 1 July 2026, at participating posts, a B-1/B-2 applicant can pay $750 on top of the standard application fee and be offered an interview appointment within ten business days.
Ten business days is about two calendar weeks. Set that against the waits applicants actually face, with Toronto quoted at over fourteen months and Sydney at fifteen, and the appeal is obvious. This is the first time the US government has offered a straightforward, pay-to-go-faster lane for ordinary visitor visa applicants, rather than a discretionary emergency process you have to argue your way into.
The rule also mentions enhanced passport return options after the interview where a post can operationally support them, though that is a secondary benefit and not guaranteed.
The framing in the rule matters. The State Department describes the pilot as a proof of concept, a way to measure whether demand exists for a paid expedite lane, with an eye on large inbound events such as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. This is a test, not a permanent programme, and it was built to produce data.
The part most coverage leaves out: where you can actually use it
Search for this fee and you will find dozens of law-firm briefings and news write-ups. Nearly all of them describe the mechanism accurately and then stop. The question that determines whether any of it applies to you goes unanswered: at which embassies?
Here is the answer as of 19 August 2026. The rule authorised the fee. It did not switch it on everywhere. Posts have to be individually designated, one mission at a time, and two missions have been:
- Mission Mexico, from 22 July 2026. The US Embassy in Mexico City together with all US consulates in Mexico.
- Mission Canada, from 18 August 2026. The US Embassy in Ottawa together with all US consulates in Canada, which is the designation that matters most so far because Canadian visitor visa waits are among the longest anywhere. We cover what it means for applicants there in the $750 paid expedite in Canada.
No other embassy or consulate has been designated. If you are applying in India, the UAE, Nigeria, Brazil, the Philippines or anywhere else, you cannot pay this fee today. The option is not hidden behind a support ticket, and it is not something an agent can unlock for you. It has not been turned on at your post.
A warning worth taking seriously
Because the pilot is real, well documented and widely reported, it is close to a perfect setup for fraud. If anyone offers to obtain a "$750 expedited appointment" for you at a post that is not on the participating list, they are describing something that does not exist. Treat that offer as the end of the conversation. The same goes for anyone quoting a different figure: $500, $900, "$750 plus our handling fee" paid to a private account. The fee is paid to the US government through the official scheduling channel, never to an intermediary's wallet.
Who qualifies, and who is shut out
Eligibility for the pilot is narrower than most summaries suggest. Three filters apply at once, and you must clear all three.
- Visa category. B-1 (business) and B-2 (tourism) only. F-1 students, H-1B and L-1 workers, J-1 exchange visitors and every other nonimmigrant category are excluded. If you are a student staring down a programme start date, this pilot does nothing for you.
- Location. You must be applying at a designated post. Today that means a US post in Mexico or Canada.
- Capacity. Expedited slots are capped. The pilot is sized at roughly 25,000 requests in total, and the rule is explicit that expedited appointments may not be available at all posts or at all times. Paying is not the same as being scheduled.
There is a fourth, practical filter that nobody writes down: you still need a complete DS-160 and a paid MRV fee before any of this is relevant. The expedite fee accelerates the interview queue. It does not accelerate you through your own paperwork.
What $750 does not buy
This is the section to read twice, because the gap between what people assume they are buying and what the rule actually provides is where the money gets wasted.
The rule states that payment of the fee does not alter the substantive adjudication process and provides no advantage in the adjudication. In plain terms:
- It does not improve your chances of approval. The same consular officer applies the same standard to the same evidence. A weak application interviewed in ten days is still a weak application.
- It does not shorten security screening or administrative processing. If your case goes into administrative processing after the interview, you wait exactly as long as anyone else.
- It does not lower any requirement. Documentation, eligibility and interview standards are untouched.
- It does not guarantee you a slot. Capacity is finite. The commitment is to offer an appointment within ten business days at participating posts, subject to availability.
- It does not cover anyone but you. Travelling as a family of four means four fees. At $750 each on top of $185 each, that is $3,740.
One open question is worth resolving before you pay rather than after: published summaries of the rule do not spell out what happens to your $750 if the post cannot in fact schedule you within ten business days. Ask the post directly, in writing, and keep the receipt.
How it compares to every other route to an earlier date
The $750 fee did not arrive in an empty market. Applicants have been solving this problem privately for years, and it is worth seeing the whole set side by side, including us, and including the options that cost nothing.
Routes to an earlier US visa interview, compared
Costs are in US dollars and exclude the $185 MRV application fee, which everybody pays regardless. Third-party prices change; check each provider directly before deciding.
| Route | Cost | What it actually does | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accept the date offered | Free | Nothing. You keep whatever the portal gave you. | Travel dates that are genuinely flexible |
| Check and reschedule yourself | Free (costs time) | You watch the portal and move your date when a cancellation appears. Limited by your country's reschedule allowance. | Applicants with time, patience and a flexible daily schedule |
| Slot-availability websites | Free tier; paid alert plans, billed whether or not a date appears | Surfaces availability and sends alerts. You still log in and book the slot yourself, in whatever seconds you have. | Confident, tech-comfortable applicants who can drop everything to act |
| All-in-one visa platforms | Service fee charged at checkout, before anything changes | Guided DS-160 completion, document checks and appointment support inside one platform. | First-time applicants who want the whole application handled in one place |
| Standard expedite / emergency request | Free | Official request based on documented urgency: medical, funeral, urgent business. Granted at the consular officer's discretion. | Genuine, documentable emergencies anywhere in the world |
| $750 government expedite pilot | $750 per applicant | Official interview within 10 business days at participating posts. No urgency justification needed. | B-1/B-2 applicants in Mexico or Canada with a firm deadline and the budget |
| Easy Visa Booking us | From $100, paid only if an earlier date is secured | Our team takes on the rescheduling work for your consulate and helps you move to an earlier interview date. | Applicants outside the pilot, or inside it without $750 a head, who cannot realistically watch the portal themselves |
Third-party services are listed because they are the alternatives you are already weighing, not as endorsements. We have no commercial relationship with any of them. Verify current pricing and terms with each provider directly.
If the $750 route is closed to you, here is what our row gives you that the others do not
- $100 against $750, and only if it works. The government pilot is paid up front, per applicant, and is open to B-1/B-2 applicants in Mexico and Canada. Our fee starts at $100 and is charged only when an earlier interview is actually secured. If your date never moves, you owe nothing at all.
- It is not restricted to one country or one visa class. The pilot covers participating posts only. We work rescheduling cases across consulates worldwide, which is the whole point for applicants the pilot does not reach.
- The watching stops being your problem. An alert plan hands you a notification and leaves the hard part with you: being free, logged in and acting within seconds. Our team carries that work instead.
- A wide date range is the biggest lever you control. If you can accept any date inside a broad window rather than one specific morning, the odds of moving your interview go up sharply. Tell us the widest range your travel plans allow and we will tell you honestly how it looks before you commit to anything.
- No guarantee, said out loud. Nobody outside the US government controls slot supply, so we publish that limit rather than selling around it, along with our terms and refund policy.
If you are in Mexico or Canada, on B-1/B-2, with the budget and a hard deadline, take the government route. We would rather say that here than sell against it.
Read down that table and the honest conclusion is not "pay us". It is this: if you are applying at a participating post, have a hard deadline and can afford it, the $750 government route is the cleanest option on the board. It is official, it carries a defined commitment, and there is no intermediary. We would tell a client that directly.
The reason our service exists is the row above it and the four rows below it: the applicants at posts where the government has not opened a paid lane, and the ones inside the pilot who cannot put $750 a head behind every traveller, who are left with rescheduling as the only mechanism that actually moves a date forward.
Is it worth $750? A decision test
If you are eligible, the question becomes arithmetic rather than opinion. Three checks settle it.
1. What does the delay actually cost you?
Put a number on it. A non-refundable flight and hotel, a conference fee, a business deal that expires, a medical consultation with a scheduled date, a wedding you are in. If waiting costs you more than $750, the fee is straightforwardly rational. If your trip is a holiday that can move by two months at no cost, it is not.
2. How long is the wait at your specific post right now?
Check the current figure on the State Department's global visa wait times page before you decide anything. Wait times vary sharply between posts in the same country: Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Ciudad Juárez do not move together, and neither do Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax. Paying $750 to skip a three-week queue is a poor trade. Paying it to skip an eight-month queue is a different calculation entirely.
3. Is your application actually ready?
An interview in ten business days is only useful if you can be prepared for it in ten business days. If your DS-160 has errors, your financial documentation is thin or your travel purpose is not clearly evidenced, you are paying $750 to be refused sooner. Fix the application first.
If the pilot is closed to you and your date is too far out: rescheduling is the mechanism that will actually move it, and the rules around it are stricter than most people realise. Our guide to rescheduling a US visa appointment to an earlier date covers how many attempts you get in your country and how to avoid wasting them.
What to do if the pilot is closed to you
Which is to say, what almost everyone reading this should do: the pilot covers two missions and one visa category. Four routes remain open, in roughly the order worth trying them.
First, check whether you qualify for a standard expedite. This route predates the pilot, costs nothing and exists at every post. It requires a documented urgent reason: a medical emergency, a funeral of an immediate family member, an urgent and unforeseen business need, or a student whose programme start date is imminent. It is granted at the consular officer's discretion and refusals are common, but it is free and it takes an hour to apply. There is no reason not to try it first if your situation genuinely fits.
Second, book the earliest date offered, even if it is a year out. This is the step people skip, and skipping it is the single most costly mistake in the entire process. In most systems you cannot access the reschedule function at all until you hold a confirmed appointment. No booking means no ability to move to an earlier slot when one appears. Book something, then work backwards from it.
Third, work the reschedule mechanism properly. Cancellations are where earlier dates come from. They surface unpredictably and disappear in seconds. Your country's allowance for how many times you may reschedule per MRV fee is finite, and in India it has been one since January 2025, so the discipline is to only spend an attempt on a date that materially improves your position.
Fourth, consider flexibility on location. Within a country, waits differ by post, sometimes by many months. Our Canada guide works through this in detail: Toronto is consistently the hardest post in the country while Halifax and Quebec City are consistently easier, and a domestic flight is cheaper than a six-month delay. One caution since September 2025: you are expected to interview in your country of nationality or legal residence, so this is flexibility within your own country, not a reason to fly abroad.
Will the pilot expand or be extended?
Nobody outside the State Department knows, and anyone telling you otherwise is guessing. What can be said from the record is this.
The rule anticipates additional posts being designated during the pilot period, so expansion is contemplated rather than ruled out. The stated rationale, testing demand ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and other large events, points towards a government that expects to need this capability at scale in two years' time. A pilot capped at 25,000 requests and confined to one mission is not sized to be the final answer.
Against that: the authority currently runs only to 31 December 2026, and no extension has been announced. Plan around the pilot as it is written, not as you hope it will be amended. If your travel is in early 2027 and you are counting on this fee existing, you are counting on something that has not been promised.
We review this page whenever the State Department designates a new participating post. If you find it out of date, tell us at contact@easyvisabooking.com and we will correct it.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the expedited US visa interview cost in total?
The expedite fee is $750, and it is charged in addition to the standard MRV application fee, which is US$185 for B-1/B-2 applicants. The combined cost is therefore US$935 before any travel or document expenses. The $750 is an optional add-on, not a replacement for the MRV fee.
Which embassies offer the $750 expedited appointment?
Two missions as of 19 August 2026. Mission Mexico, covering the US Embassy in Mexico City and all US consulates in Mexico, was designated on 22 July 2026. Mission Canada, covering the US Embassy in Ottawa and all US consulates in Canada, followed on 18 August 2026. No other post has been designated, so if you are applying elsewhere in the world the $750 option is not available to you today. The State Department adds posts one mission at a time, so check the official pilot page before assuming either way.
How fast is the expedited interview?
The pilot commits participating posts to offering an interview appointment within ten business days of the expedite request, subject to capacity. Ten business days is roughly two calendar weeks, so it is a genuine acceleration against waits that run into months at many posts.
Does paying $750 improve my chances of getting the visa?
No. The rule states plainly that the fee does not alter the substantive adjudication process and provides no advantage in adjudication. Eligibility requirements, security screening and administrative processing are unchanged. You are buying an earlier interview date, not a better outcome at that interview.
Which visa types are covered by the $750 expedite pilot?
B-1 and B-2 visitor visas only. Student visas (F-1), work visas (H-1B, L-1) and every other nonimmigrant category are excluded from this pilot. Applicants in those categories must use the standard expedite request route based on demonstrated urgency.
When does the $750 expedited appointment pilot end?
The pilot is authorised from 1 July 2026 through 31 December 2026. The State Department has described it as a proof-of-concept to gauge demand for a fee-based expedite service ahead of large events such as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, so an extension or expansion is plausible, but nothing beyond 31 December 2026 has been announced.
What can I do if the $750 expedite is not offered at my consulate?
Three routes remain. First, the standard emergency or expedited appointment request, which is free but requires documented urgency such as a medical emergency, a funeral or an urgent business need, and is granted at the consular officer's discretion. Second, booking the earliest date offered and then rescheduling to an earlier slot when cancellations appear. Third, using a paid appointment service to handle that rescheduling work on your behalf. None of these can guarantee a date.
Is the $750 expedite fee refundable if no appointment is available?
Expedited capacity under the pilot is capped and may not be available at all times, and published summaries of the rule do not set out refund treatment where an appointment cannot be offered. Confirm the refund position directly with the participating post before paying, and keep your payment receipt.
The bottom line
The $750 expedited appointment is real, it is official, and for the narrow group it covers it is a good deal: a defined two-week commitment, paid to the government, with no intermediary. If you are a B-1/B-2 applicant in Mexico or Canada with a deadline and the budget for every traveller in your party, take it.
For everyone else, which is to say almost everyone, the honest position is that the government has not yet opened a paid fast lane at your post, and the headlines suggesting otherwise are describing a pilot you cannot join. Your levers remain the free expedite request if your circumstances genuinely qualify, and disciplined rescheduling if they do not.
What nobody can promise you
No service, ours included, can guarantee an earlier interview date, and nobody outside the US government can influence whether your visa is approved. The US Mission in India has said as much publicly: no agent can guarantee a visa or an interview slot. Any provider that offers you a guarantee is either misunderstanding their own product or misleading you, and in this category that distinction rarely matters to the person who paid.
Sources
- US Department of State, “Nonimmigrant Visa Expedited Appointment Pilot Program”. The participating post list: Mission Mexico from 22 July 2026, Mission Canada from 18 August 2026. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
- US Department of State, temporary final rule establishing the expedited interview fee, Federal Register, 9 June 2026 (doc. 2026-11513). Retrieved 12 August 2026.
- Mintz, “Department of State Introduces $750 Fee for Expedited B-1/B-2 Visa Interview Appointments”, 27 July 2026. First participating post and adjudication caveats. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
- BAL Immigration News, “Pilot program for expedited B-1/B-2 visa interview fee launches July 1”. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
- US Department of State, Global Visa Wait Times. Current interview waits by post. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
Published 12 August 2026. Updated 19 August 2026 to add Mission Canada to the participating posts. Reviewed whenever a new participating post is designated. This article is general information about a US government scheduling programme and is not legal or immigration advice.
Pilot closed to you, or $750 a head out of reach?
Rescheduling is the mechanism that is left, and it is the one that moves most dates. If you cannot realistically keep watching the portal alongside work or study, our team can take that on for you, for a fraction of the government fee and only if it works.
- From $100, and you pay only if we secure you an earlier date
- The wider the date range you can accept, the more often we can move it
- No guarantee of a date, stated plainly before you decide anything
Easy Visa Booking is an independent scheduling assistance service, not affiliated with the US Department of State, any US Embassy or Consulate, CGI Federal or the AIS portal. All appointments are made through the official portal.