Closures and Budget Cuts Planned for U.S. Consulates and Embassies Abroad

Quick Hits

• The updated Visa Appointment Wait Times search function has been replaced by a static table of wait times, last updated on January 7, 2025.
• Senior officials from the State Department are planning to shutter consulates and embassies in Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, and Brazil and slash consular budgets.
• The State Department’s operations budget may be cut by up to 20 percent.

The U.S. Department of State has removed the previous search function for determining consular visa appointment wait times from its website. The current site link ends with the word “DEACTIVATED,” and the site itself features a simple chart with estimated visa appointment wait times, last updated on January 7, 2025. These website updates are emblematic of the proposed budget cuts to consular services overall, with the State Department expected to cut up to 20 percent of its operations budget.

State Department officials have also provided a list to the U.S. Congress containing consulates and embassies it plans to close in the coming months. The list mentions missions in Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, and Portugal and proposes to consolidate consular resources on a regional basis with larger embassies and consulates. Specifically, missions in Bordeaux, Lyon, Rennes, and Strasbourg in France; Dusseldorf, Hamburg, and Leipzig in Germany; Florence in Italy; Ponta Delgada in Portugal; and Belo Horizonte in Brazil are potentially on the chopping block.

In addition to the closure of certain missions abroad, the State Department is planning for significant layoffs of mission staff. The State Department employs approximately 80,000 people, including approximately 64,000 employees abroad (50,000 local hires and 14,000 trained diplomats), and 13,000 civil service members working domestically in the United States. The chiefs of mission abroad have already been asked by the State Department to begin making plans to pare down staffing to the bare minimum required.

Next Steps

Individuals planning to receive visa stamping abroad should continue to anticipate significant delays in visa issuance as consulates and embassies are closed, restructured, and reorganized. Staffing cuts are likely to further exacerbate visa delays well into the future.

Ogletree Deakins’ Immigration Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will publish updates on the Immigration blog as additional information becomes available.

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