You live in London. Your passport is Indian, Chinese, Nigerian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian or something similar. You need a US visitor visa for a conference in March or a family trip in the summer. The US visa London non-UK citizen route works, but the rules changed in September 2025 and a lot of advice online is still from before that.
This is the current picture as of October 2026, what it costs, how long it takes, and where people get caught. We help with the logistics (documents, tracking appointment dates). We are not lawyers, and nothing here is legal advice. If you have a refusal, an arrest, an immigration violation or a complicated work history, talk to a US immigration attorney before you apply.
Can you apply for a US visa in London if you're not British?
Yes, if you live in the UK. Since 6 September 2025, US consulates require you to interview in your country of nationality or your country of residence. If you live in the UK, London is your post, whatever the passport says.
The catch is proof. If your location is based on residence, you must be able to show you actually live there. Non-UK, non-EU passport holders should expect to show their UK immigration status alongside the usual documents. Applicants who booked in a third country such as Ireland, Germany or Poland after that date forfeit the fee, and the appointment cannot be transferred. Exceptions exist for humanitarian, medical-emergency or foreign-policy reasons, but they are rare and decided case by case.
Before this, many UK residents with long London waits flew to Dublin, Warsaw or Frankfurt for a quicker slot. That shortcut is closed. If you see an agent offering a "faster third-country appointment", ask what happens to your fee when the post refuses to see you.
What changed in 2025, and who still skips the interview?
Almost nobody skips it now. On 2 September 2025, the State Department ended most interview waivers (the "dropbox" route), and on 6 September 2025 it ended third-country visa stamping. Law-firm summaries, including Faegre Drinker's, set out both.
The practical effect for you: an in-person interview is the default. That includes children under 14 and adults over 79, who used to be exempt.
One narrow waiver survives for visitors. You can still skip the interview when renewing a B1/B2 visa if all of these are true:
- your previous visa was full-validity and expired within the last 12 months
- you were at least 18 when it was issued
- you are renewing in the same category
- you apply in your country of nationality or residence
- you have no history of visa refusal or ineligibility
Miss one and you interview. Even if you qualify, a consular officer can still call you in.
If your last visa was issued by a different post, say Delhi or Lagos, and you are now renewing from London, the "country of residence" condition is the one to check. Your UK status needs to support it.
How long is the wait for a B1/B2 interview in London?
Expect somewhere between one month and about three months. Published figures disagree, and the honest answer is that it moves week to week.
A third-party tracker citing the State Department's mid-September 2026 update put London visitor-visa (B1/B2) wait at roughly one month. An immigration firm's London guide dated January 2026 said about 82 days. Both can be true at different moments, and neither is the official number.
The source that counts is the State Department's Global Visa Wait Times tool. It lists the estimated wait for each visa category at each post and says it does not guarantee you an appointment within that time. Check it the day you plan to book, not the day you start reading about visas.
Two things stretch the wait beyond the calendar:
Cancellations drop in without warning. Earlier slots appear when other applicants cancel, usually a few at a time, and they go within minutes. People who check once a week miss them. People who check twice a day, or have someone doing it for them, move their date forward by weeks.
The interview is not the end. After a successful interview your passport goes to be stamped and returned by courier. That commonly takes days. If the officer puts your case into administrative processing, it can take weeks or longer, and nobody at the embassy can tell you how long.
The fees, including the new visa integrity fee
Budget for the application fee now, and for a possible second fee at issuance.
| Fee | Amount | When you pay | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visa application (MRV), B1/B2 | $185 | Before booking | Non-refundable. Valid 365 days for one application |
| Reciprocity fee | Varies by nationality | At issuance, if it applies | Depends on your passport. Some nationalities pay nothing |
| Visa integrity fee | $250 (set by law, indexed to inflation) | At issuance, after approval | Collection started at some posts in 2026. Check London |
| ESTA (for comparison) | About $40 | Online, before travel | Only for Visa Waiver nationalities. Exempt from the integrity fee |
The visa integrity fee comes from the 2025 budget law. Boston University's international office reported in May 2026 that some consular posts had begun collecting it, at the time of issuance once the visa is approved. If you are refused, you do not pay it. Our reading of those sources: it is "theoretically refundable" if you comply with your visa conditions, but no clear refund process has been published, so plan as though you will not get it back.
We could not confirm from official pages whether London is collecting it today. The State Department's own fee page was not reachable when we checked. Read the instructions on your appointment confirmation and the UK booking portal, and assume a total near $435 (the $185 application fee plus $250) for a B1/B2 until you see otherwise.
Also check the reciprocity schedule for your passport. In July 2025 the US cut most visas for nationals of Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Ethiopia to three months and a single entry. We found nothing confirming a change since, but check the current table before you assume a multi-year, multiple-entry visa. A separate set of presidential proclamations since 2025 restricts visas for nationals of a list of countries. Look yours up before you pay a fee you cannot get back.
Documents that matter for UK residents
The core pack is standard. Valid passport, printed DS-160 confirmation page with barcode, fee receipt, appointment confirmation, one recent 5x5 cm photo. Bring originals. Non-UK passports are generally expected to be valid for at least six months beyond your stay, so check that early.
What differs for you is proving you are a UK resident and that you will come back.
Your UK status. BRPs expired on 31 December 2024, and your status now lives online as an eVisa in your UKVI account. Bring a printout of the status page and generate a fresh share code (they last 90 days) in case it is asked for. We could not find the embassy stating that it accepts a share code on its own, so keep your passport or expired BRP and any Home Office approval letter with you too. Check the current document list on the embassy site.
Employment. A letter on company letterhead giving your role, start date, salary, and confirmation that your leave is approved. Your last three payslips. If you are self-employed, company accounts and recent invoices.
Ties. Officers want evidence you will leave the US. A UK tenancy or mortgage, family here, a business, savings. If your family or property is in your home country, include that as well. Mismatches between your DS-160, your documents and your answers hurt more than a thin file does.
Money. Recent bank statements showing the trip is affordable, not an inflated balance that appeared last week.
Do not hand over a folder of 80 pages. Bring a short, indexed set and answer the questions asked. We help clients check that dates, job titles and addresses match across every document before the DS-160 is submitted. A wrong job title or date on the DS-160 is easy to fix before submission and hard to explain afterwards.
Do you need a visa or can you use ESTA?
It depends on your passport, not where you live. A UK resident with a passport from a Visa Waiver Program country, for example Poland, Italy, Spain or Ireland, can apply online for ESTA instead of a visa. Holders of Indian, Chinese, Nigerian, Russian, Turkish or Ukrainian passports cannot, so you need the B1/B2 visa.
If you do hold two passports, one from a participating country, ESTA is cheaper and faster. Two cautions: ESTA can be refused if you have travelled to certain countries since 2011, and a refusal pushes you to the visa route anyway. Apply on the official CBP ESTA site only. Third-party sites charge extra for the same form.
Visa Waiver travellers are exempt from the visa integrity fee. That alone makes it worth checking a second passport.
Many people in this position need a Schengen visa in the same year. The process differs, but refusal reasons overlap: weak ties, vague purpose, finances that do not add up. Our guides to Schengen visa refusal reasons and getting a Schengen visa fast cover that side. If you hold a passport that lets you skip the Schengen visa, see the ETIAS guide for UK travellers.
How early should you start before your trip?
Start four months before departure. If the trip is tied to a fixed date such as a wedding, a conference or a graduation, start five.
A working schedule looks like this:
- Week 0: complete the DS-160, pay the application fee, create your account, book the earliest slot shown.
- Weeks 1 to 12: watch for earlier cancellations. Gather employment, status and ties documents.
- Interview day: passport retained if approved, returned by courier in the following days.
- After: allow extra time for administrative processing if it happens.
Do not buy non-refundable flights until the visa is in your passport. If you have already booked, move the date or buy a refundable fare. A visa fee is valid for 365 days, so you have time, but a rebooked appointment later than your fee expiry means paying again.
If you're refused (214(b)) and what to do next
Most B1/B2 refusals are under section 214(b). The officer was not satisfied that you intend to return home after the trip. It is not a permanent ban and there is no appeal.
You can apply again, but the fee covers one application, so you pay the $185 again. The common advice from immigration practitioners is to reapply only when something material has changed: a new role or promotion, a property purchase, a changed family situation, a clearer travel purpose. The same file at the same desk gives the same answer.
Read the refusal slip. Ask yourself honestly which part the officer doubted. Fix that first. And if you are in doubt about anything on your record, take legal advice before you book again, not after a second refusal.
Where we come in
The wait-time page, the fee list and the reciprocity table change faster than any article. We use the best intelligence available on current slots and fees, and people who check your documents line by line before you submit, so the dates and job titles match everywhere. We watch the booking calendar and message you when an earlier date opens. You book in your own account, and we move quickly when it does. We do not give legal advice, and we say so when you need a lawyer. See our visa and travel service.