Nonimmigrant visa issuance continued to climb in fiscal year 2023, surpassing pre-pandemic totals, according to recently published State Department statistics.

According to the Report of the Visa Office 2023, the State Department issued a total of 10,438,327 nonimmigrant visas, up more than 34% from last year’s total of 6,815,120. Visa issuance plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic but has rebounded in each of the last two fiscal years.

Additional Information: The Visa Office changed its methodology for calculating visa data beginning with fiscal year 2019 to reflect the greater access to application-level data. Its previous methodology was based on a count of workload actions, which were not linked by application. The new methodology more accurately reflects final outcomes from the visa application process during a specified reporting period but does not mean the prior methodology was flawed or erroneous.