whereTOemigrate Research · data as of July 2026
Visa Processing Times 2026
Published processing times for 1,183 visa pathways, aggregated by category and country.
↓ Download the data (CSV) · free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0, link to this page)
The headline numbers
- Median visa processing time worldwide: 30 days (n=1,183 of the 2,863 pathways publish a time).
- 90% of pathways resolve within 180 days; the slowest published time is 1,680 days.
- 624 pathways (53% of those that publish a time) are processed in 30 days or less.
Median processing by visa category
| Category | Median days | Pathways (n) |
|---|---|---|
| Work | 30 | 506 |
| Residence | 30 | 341 |
| Education | 30 | 95 |
| Investment | 30 | 57 |
| Passive Income | 30 | 28 |
| Family | 42 | 133 |
| Ancestry | 90 | 23 |
Fastest countries (median, min. 5 published times)
| Country | Median days | Pathways (n) |
|---|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | 2 | 8 |
| Bahrain | 3 | 9 |
| Cameroon | 3 | 5 |
| Indonesia | 5 | 27 |
| Vietnam | 5 | 5 |
| Comoros | 10 | 5 |
| Ethiopia | 10 | 7 |
| Finland | 14 | 16 |
| Latvia | 14 | 12 |
| Liechtenstein | 14 | 5 |
| Bangladesh | 15 | 8 |
| Cuba | 15 | 6 |
Cite this data
Free to cite and republish with attribution: “Source: whereTOemigrate — Visa Processing Times 2026: Median 30 Days Across 1,183 Pathways” (CC BY 4.0). Figures computed from the whereTOemigrate pathway database of 2,863 open visa and residency pathways across 215 countries and territories, each linked to a named source. Methodology: how we collect and verify.
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