When do US visa slots open in India? What 348 verified releases show

When do US visa slots open in India? The short answer

What counts as a "verified release" here: dates still listed after our confirmation window. In more detail: a fresh appearance of bookable dates on a consulate's calendar that passed verification — it stayed genuinely available rather than flashing and disappearing, so ghost slots are excluded by design. Repeat sightings of the same opening are counted once. All times are IST. Releases averaged about 3 per day across all five posts combined.

Which hours of the day do slots actually open? (IST)

Early morning leads, but not by as much as folklore claims. The 3–6 AM IST band held 23% of the 348 verified releases — nearly double a typical band — with 5–6 AM the single busiest hour at 9.5%. Every other 3-hour band still carried between 7% and 13%, so daytime releases are routine, not rare.

Based on 348 verified releases between 7 June and 2 October 2026, from GetMyVisa's verified slot history.

The three busiest single hours were 5–6 AM (9.5% of all releases), 3–4 AM and 4–5 AM (tied). The quietest stretch was late evening: 9 PM to midnight.

Two honest caveats. First, B1/B2 dominates this sample — 96% of verified releases — so the overall curve is effectively the B1/B2 curve. Second, consulates differ: New Delhi alone produced 51% of all verified releases in this period, Chennai 20%, Mumbai 14%, Hyderabad 7.8% and Kolkata 7.5%. Per-consulate hour charts are on this page below the table.

Which days of the week do slots open?

Weekdays, overwhelmingly. 84% of the 348 verified releases landed Monday to Friday. Tuesday was the busiest day at 19.8% and Friday close behind at 18.4%, while Sunday was the quietest at 5.5% — Tuesday saw roughly 3.6 times as many verified releases as Sunday.

Based on 348 verified releases between 7 June and 2 October 2026, from GetMyVisa's verified slot history.

Weekend releases happen — about 1 in 6 — so a Saturday opening is unusual, not impossible. But if you're rationing your attention, the data says a random weekday is a better bet than a weekend vigil.

Do interview and OFC (biometric) calendars follow the same pattern?

In this four-month window they didn't just differ — they diverged completely. Every one of the 348 verified releases came from biometric (OFC/VAC) appointment calendars. The interview calendars in GetMyVisa's verified slot history recorded no verified releases at all in this period, which matches how scarce consular interview dates have been through 2026.

A few more texture points from the same history:

• Half of releases are tiny. 48% of verified releases showed a single date; the median release carried 3 distinct dates. Bulk releases (52% of events) carried a median of 7–8 dates, topping out at 30.
• Releases don't linger. More than half of verified releases were gone after a single verified sighting, and three out of four were over within about 20 minutes of being verified.
• H1B marched to its own drum. The 13 verified H1B releases leaned toward working hours — 8 of 13 landed between 9 AM and 6 PM IST — unlike the B1/B2 early-morning tilt. Thirteen events is a small sample, so treat this as a hint, not a rule. F1/F2 produced exactly one verified release in the window, too few to say anything.

Why does the "12 AM–6 AM" folklore persist?

Because it's a quarter-truth that's easy to repeat. The midnight-to-6 AM block did hold more than its share — 35.9% of verified releases in 25% of the day. But 9 AM to 6 PM held 35.6%, essentially the same. The folklore isn't wrong that nights are busy; it's wrong that nights are the whole story.

Guides asserting "slots open 12 AM–6 AM IST" never cite data — the claim survives because a 4 AM success story is memorable and gets retold, while the Tuesday-2 PM booking nobody stayed up for doesn't make group lore. Meanwhile 64% of verified releases in this period happened outside that block. If you only look at night, the odds say you'll sleep through most of your chances — and if you keep looking at all hours instead, you'll burn out on ghost sightings, which is a different problem (see our ghost slots explainer).

How should you use this data?

As odds, not as a timetable. Nothing here guarantees a release at any hour — the honest reading is that releases cluster early-morning and midweek but turn up at almost any time, are often a single date, and are usually finished within minutes. That combination is exactly why refreshing by hand, at any hour, is a losing game.

Practically:

• Don't build your sleep around 3 AM. The busiest band still carried less than a quarter of releases. A missed night costs you more than it buys.
• Be ready to act in minutes, not hours. With most releases over within about 20 minutes of verification — and half showing just one date — the margin is reaction time, not dedication.
• Let the verified history handle the timing for you.GetMyVisa sends an alert only after a release passes verification, so you're not chasing ghosts at 4 AM — and you can see this same history yourself, release by release, in the app's History tab.

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