Getting a U.S. Visa in Barbados 2024

Interviewer said printing & passport return was taking 7 business days but it only took 3 days.
- Darryn (about 1 year ago)

Loved the visa experience in Barbados. I booked mid march for a May appointment, there was lots of availability when I booked. I arrived in Bridgetown on the Monday for a Tuesday 8am appointment. My taxi driver from the airport ended up being my driver for the whole trip, this seems like a very normal thing to happen here. I got to the consulate around 7:45, there was a line but it all moved pretty quickly. They will hold any small electronics for you and give you a tag to retrieve them as you exit. They are not super used to E3s so they used a checklist to ask me questions but didn't ask to see any of my supporting documentation. I was out of the embassy by 8:30. There is no wifi in the surrounding area outside the embassy so I had to ask someone to call my driver. They have a white sheet of paper now that seems to have the correct details for collecting your passport. Later on Tuesday evening I checked my status and it had changed to issued. Thursday morning I still hadn't received a tracking number so I decided to just go to DHL and check. They said they didn't have my passport. Later that night I got my tracking number and after I looked at the details it seemed as though my passport was there... I probably should have waited to check in the afternoon. The DHL line is the most waiting you will do, bring a book and some water. Friday morning I picked up my passport and I am flying back to NYC on Saturday. As for Barbados, I am a young woman, heavily tattooed, and what I believe to be obviously gay. I got a lot of male attention. An uncomfortable amount. I couldn't have a quiet drink without a man coming up to me. That being said I would totally come back just maybe with a friend. It would have been nice to have an ally.
- Lauren (about 11 months ago)

8am appointment on Tuesday, everyone from 7:45am to 8:15am let in at once around 7:45am. I got close to the front and was out via 8:15am. Efficient process - case officer only asked to briefly see the letter from my employer and some pay stubs. Status changed to approve immediately, then changed to issued the following day. Didn’t get a tracking number so just turned up at 3pm at the DHL. The older woman was turning people away without a tracking number but I made sure I was served by the younger lady and she went to check when I showed her my ID. It was there and I picked it up. The actual tracking email arrived after that at 11pm in the evening. Would definitely recommend Barbados. Only bad part is the queue at the DHL.
- Dave (about 11 months ago)

Great experience at the Embassy. Overall took about 2.5 hours start to finish. Recommend arriving at least 30 mins early as they'll take you in with earlier groups. Only had to show my LCA and job offer letter. Status changed to approved immediately. Passport took a little longer to come back as the Embassy shut for a few days due to the island being on a hurricane alert. Pick-up at DHL was quick (15 mins), recommend going in the morning. Echoing a comment below, if travelling as a solo female you will get a lot of unwanted attention from local men. It is safe during the day but be more aware of yourself at night and get a bus/taxi back to your accommodation.
- Lauren (about 10 months ago)

I was getting an E3-D (spouse) visa done. I had an 8:30am appointment on Monday - they take you in batches according to appointment time. When I went there was only a small shade and chairs that was full so I recommend wearing a hat and bringing water because you may be in the sun for 45 mins. Their process was kind of slow honestly - after you get brought in you wait in a line for someone to check you in and you put your items in a locker, then you wait in a line to go through security and into a waiting room. Then another waiting room, a short line to do a basic check, then another line to do the actual 'interview'. The interview was very quick - maybe because I was getting a spouse visa so just asked to see my spouse's visa, LCA and marriage certificate. Process all up took about 2 hours - honestly I think I've had better experiences in Sydney. It switched to Approved almost immediately however it didn't switch to Issued until Friday afternoon. I did not get a tracking link but thought I would take my chance at DHL on the Monday since I was due to fly out on Wed. I do not recommend this - I waited at DHL for 1 hr only to be told they did not have my passport and to wait for the tracking link. They did give me the number and extension to call the DHL to ask in advance so I would say to call them first if you haven't received a tracking link. I ended up extending my trip because they still didn't have it the day before my flight. Ended up getting a tracking link on Tuesday night (8 days after my interview). I think I would have been more comfortable booking 2 weeks. All in all I enjoyed my trip to Barbados - there are worse places to be stuck - but I'm not sure I would go again to do my visa. As people have mentioned, you will get attention as a woman traveling alone but I never felt unsafe and everyone was really friendly.
- Melissa (about 9 months ago)

- Appointments were available 3 days in advance - Google Maps locations are incorrect (US Embassy location will take you to the back of the building, DHL location is a few houses down the road) - Get to your appointment 1+ hours early, wear sunscreen, bring a hat + water + book - Make sure you bring a physical passport photo with your hair tucked behind your ears - You should budget to stay ~10 days just in case it takes a bit longer to get your visa back. Barbados is beautiful and there's no major time difference, book a place with A/C and enjoy the amazing beaches + food 🙂 - Be prepared for them to ask you about any direct family members you have in the US, what their immigration status is, how they moved to the US - When you go to DHL to pick up your passport, also go as early as possible to avoid waiting in line and bring a hat + water
- Jacquie (about 7 months ago)

This is my second time coming to Bridgetown, and it was just as good as the first. This time the wait time between the interview and getting my passport back was considerably longer, but I have a feeling it was because of the time of year. it took about 8 business days, so plan to stay here for the entire required wait time. Be ready to be hot, they do their best to keep you in the shade, but sometimes there are just too many people. It helps to show up very early to your appointment as they take in big amounts of people at once. Once you get inside it's very organized considering how many people there were. You'll line up 3 times, once to go inside, once to get fingerprinted and the last to do your interview. Got my passport back very easily at the DHL, this is very simple as they have a special line for ppl picking up visas.
- Paz (about 8 months ago)

Monday 25SEP2023: Visa appointment was at 8:15am. Drove to the Embassy and a lot of parking available at the bottom of the hill. Arrived at the Embassy at 7:50am and was allowed to enter at 8:00am. Was asked 2 questions only: 1. Is this a new visa or a renewal? 2. What will you be doing for the employer? Was advised my visa was tentatively approved and left the Embassy at 9:30am. Tuesday 26SEP2023: Visa status changed from Approved to Issued. Wednesday 27SEP2023: 5:03pm: Received document shipment notice email with tracking number. Thursday 28SEP2023: 12:01pm: Received document ready for pickup at DHL email. 2:30pm: Went to DHL to pick up my passport. Got my passport back by 3:00pm.
- May (about 7 months ago)

I had a great experience at the Bridgetown location, my appointment was for a Tuesday at 7.45am, I arrived shortly before and there was already a long line. Near the entrance, a person checked my documents and passport photos and then pushed me up the line a bit given my early appointment. The longest part of the process was just moving through the various lines, there were a bunch of people applying for visitors visa etc, so was a fairly full house. My interview lasted all of 2 minutes, I was asked for my LCA and also asked how long I had been with the employer for (it was a new role) and what my role would be at my new job. It was approved and I was on my way, whole process took about 2 hours. I received notification the next day (Wednesday) that the visa had been processed and received a message to pick up my passport Friday. Highly recommend Bridgetown and Barbados, lovely locals and a great place to relax!
- Olivia (about 7 months ago)

I have been to Barbados multiple times to get my visa renewed. This time was a little different. There weren’t as many appointments available for E3s when I first tried to book, so I had to book further in advance than I would have liked. I think I booked the appointment in December, and was targeting mid-January timing but that wasn’t possible. I had my appointment on 2/12, I arrived around 8:20am (blame island traffic) for my 8am appointment and sat outside for about 20 minutes. They would not let us use our phones while waiting to go inside, the person who greeted me when I arrived told me to turn it off. They called everyone with 9am appointments in, so I went with them. Usual thing of putting our stuff into lockers, and then into the consulate to check in. After check in I sat and waited for maybe an hour, then stood in line waiting for the interview for about an hour. Interview took 2 minutes, as usual. I got an email the next day saying the visa had been processed, then an email on Wednesday saying DHL had it, and then one on Thursday saying it was ready to be picked up from the DHL office near the airport (standard pick up place). This was the first time I’d received emails with all those details, I had to call DHL myself to confirm they’d received my passport and it was ready to be picked up the previous times. I went into DHL on my way to the airport on Friday. Last time I was there we had to line up inside the main office and it took forever, but this time they had set up a dedicated visa pick up area around the side of the building. I went in, got a number, and was called to collect my passport after about 20 minutes. Incredibly efficient, fast, and as always beautiful! I love Barbados and highly recommend it as a visa location.
- Justine (about 2 months ago)

First off, I said yes to whether I would recommend Barbados for E3 Visa renewal. This only applies IF you know beforehand what you are letting yourself in for. I guess the experience wasn't bad, just not what I expected, especially compared to my first E3 Visa experience at the US Consulate (Embassy?) in Melbourne. Our situation was one of our initial E3 running out of time and we had to renew our Visas as a family in order to remain in the US. There's two ways to renew an E3, first (via UCIS, I think is the name), whereby you do your renewal online or via post within the US and they send you a letter saying your Visa is extended. The downside is, however, that you can't travel as your Visa stamp would have expired and you need that to travel. Due to this, we chose the second option, which is to leave the US and apply for a Visa renewal at any US Consulate that services Third-party Nationals. Mexico, Canada and places like that popular, but our immigration lawyer recommended Barbados as a popular destination for Australians. That's how we ended up going to Barbados. Now onto our Visa renewal experience. We landed in Barbados on Wednesday the 20th March, got our rental car and made our way to our AirBnB accommodation. Our appointment was for 8:15am on Thursday the 21st of March. The first pitfall to watch our for is using google to navigate to the US Embassy (Consulate). It WILL take you to the rear entrance of the Embassy. It took us another 30mins due to crazy traffic to find the front entrance. Luckily we went way early and made it with time to spare. Once you find the front entrance, you immediately have to turn left into the visitor carpark. We passed it and found it hard to make our way back to the front to park. It's a business center and no-one there to tell you where to park. After parking we walked up the hill and you spot the area where all appointees congregate easy enough. The place is hot, so bring water, a hardcopy book as you are not allowed to use your phone and a hat. Finding seating in the shade was near impossible. Now for the second pitfall. Unlike Melbourne, they don't call you in based on your appointment time. In our case, a call was made for everyone with appointments before 9am to join the line. This was the first group of appointments for the day. If you hear them call, make sure you power walk to get to the front of the line (if you run you might look silly, lol). We thought we'd be nice and let others go before us and ended near the back of the line. This meant that the people in the front of the line was in and out within 30mins. It took us about 2 hours. The back of group 1 ended up getting mixed up with group 2. Things tend to get crazier as it gets busier. We stood in line for about 30mins to get through security. Once inside, we walked past the first waiting room and into the first processing queue. Here they asked our passports, LCA, marriage certificate and child's birth certificate. This took like 5 mins. Very fast. They then ask you to take a seat until you get called for the interview. In our case the seats in that specific room already filled so we had to go back to the first room and wait there. We waited about 45 mins before we were called for our interview. The interview itself was fast. Again about 5mins. The interviewer made it clear that she found it suspicious that we would come to Barbados for an E3 and not just from within the US. So our first question was why did we come to Barbados. I told her that our immigration lawyer said this was how it needed to be done. She was adamant we didn't have to leave the US, but after I explained that my work requires me to travel outside of the US and that I needed a Visa stamp, she seemed to accept that answer as you do HAVE to leave the US to renew your Visa stamp. I explained to her that the immigration lawyer recommended Barbados as a popular destination for Aussies. She then said coming to Barbados does not guarantee a successful application. I answered her that I fully understand. Our second question was what our E3 Visa exit strategy was. I answered that we are not yet sure. Basically that if the Visa expires and/or my current employer no longer wishes to maintain employment, then we'd adhere to the Visa requirements and arrange to return to Aus in that event. That was the only two questions. Our Visas were approved and she asked if we are planning to remain in Barbados until our Passports were returned. I said yes and asked her how long it would take and got the standard up to 10 business days answer. I told her we were planning to stay for about that time and she said it should be fine. We received a blue paper. This is a standard letter saying your are tentatively approved barring standard checks and explains the process going forward. If you receive a yellow paper you are in trouble. This mean your application was denied. We were done at the Embassy around 10:30am. You can check your application process on CEAC website (on the blue letter you receive). My own, wife and kid's status changed to approved the same day (late afternoon). My wife and son's application status changed to "Issued" around 10am on Friday the 22nd and they received their DHL tracking numbers between 11am and 12pm that same day. According to the DHL website their passports were ready to pick up late on Friday. The email from the embassy only came in on Monday 25th March that it was ready to pick up. But you can use the DHL website at this stage. At this time I have not yet received anything. My own status only changed to "Issued" at after 3pm Tuesday the 26th of March and I received my tracking number for my passport at 1:40pm Wednesday March 27. DHL said my passport was ready to pick up at 4:40pm that same day even though the Embassy emails at this stage have not come in yet. That's why you can use DHL's website as there's a comms lag between DHL and the Embassy. I picked up my passport first thing on Thursday Morning March 28. A lot of reviews says the wait times at DHL is long. In my own experience if you go very early or just after 4pm, it's not busy. We were in and out pretty fast at DHL. I don't think I'd go to Barbados again for renewal. But picking a place I've not seen before a big reason. Our family tries to see as much of the world as we can. If you pick Barbados, here's some things to keep in mind: 1. Give yourself enough time. Most Visas are quick, but you may just be the unlucky one where it takes longer. Give yourself 2 weeks to be safe. The beaches are beautiful, so it's not that hard to wait for your Visa while drinking rum punch. 2. Rent a car. Using taxis/uber a mess unless you are familiar with how they work. Roads are full of potholes and narrow. Traffic is crazy. And this is me saying this driving the roads of Denver every day. lol. Oh yes, they drive on the left side of the road. 3. Barbados is expensive. For example, I pay $1.50 per gallon for bottled water in CO, worked out about $3 for half-gallon in a supermarket for bottled water. It varies, but in general things are expensive. US$2 for a beer, so that was a win. 4. This was just our experience, but I found people in Barbados to be a bit rude. I read about this on Tripadvisor and didn't think much about it, but once there it became pretty apparent. Jerry at the south end of Brandon's beach was awesome though. We rented our umbrellas and beach chairs from him and the beer is cheap. But in supermarkets or at takeout places people weren't very nice. 5. Apparently they speak English in Barbados. HAHAHAH...I could NOT understand the accent. After a week I started getting used to it, but it makes things difficult. Chicken wings at KFC is referred to as flappers. All the best should you pick Barbados. Wasn't bad. But now that I've been, I'll pick another destination for the next round.
- Lomar (about 29 days ago)