Ef­fec­tive Sep­tem­ber 2, 2025, the De­part­ment of State will up­date the cat­e­gories of ap­pli­cants who may be el­i­gi­ble for a waiv­er of the non-im­mi­grant visa in­ter­view, a re­lease from the U.S. Em­bassy in Port of Spain has con­firmed.

The gen­er­al pol­i­cy is that all non-im­mi­grant visa ap­pli­cants, in­clud­ing ap­pli­cants un­der the age of 14 and over the age of 79, will gen­er­al­ly re­quire an in-per­son in­ter­view with a con­sular of­fi­cer.

In the state­ment, the U.S. Em­bassy out­lines where ex­cep­tions will ap­ply:

● Ap­pli­cants clas­si­fi­able un­der the visa sym­bols A-1, A-2, C-3 (ex­cept at­ten­dants, ser­vants, or per­son­al em­ploy­ees of ac­cred­it­ed of­fi­cials); G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4, NA­TO-1 through NA­TO-6, or TECRO E-1;

● Ap­pli­cants for diplo­mat­ic- or of­fi­cial-type visas; and

● Ap­pli­cants re­new­ing a full va­lid­i­ty B-1, B-2, B1/B2 visa with­in 12 months of the pri­or visa’s ex­pi­ra­tion, and who were at least 18 years old at the time of the pri­or visa’s is­suance.

The U.S. Em­bassy al­so notes cer­tain cri­te­ria to be el­i­gi­ble for an in­ter­view waiv­er that must be met for those re­new­ing a full va­lid­i­ty B-1, B-2, B1/B2 visa.

The ap­pli­cant must:

● ap­ply in their coun­try of na­tion­al­i­ty or res­i­dence;

● have nev­er been re­fused a visa (un­less such re­fusal was over­come or waived); and

● have no ap­par­ent or po­ten­tial in­el­i­gi­bil­i­ty.

The U.S. Em­bassy’s state­ment al­so em­pha­sized that “con­sular of­fi­cers may still re­quire in-per­son in­ter­views on a case-by-case ba­sis for any rea­son.”

For de­tailed in­for­ma­tion about visa ap­pli­ca­tion re­quire­ments and pro­ce­dures, ap­pli­cants are en­cour­aged to check the Em­bassy’s web­site…

https://tt.usem­bassy.gov/visas/