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.
| Fiscal Year | Nonimmigrant Visas Issued Globally |
| 2023 | 10,438,327 |
| 2022 | 6,815,120 |
| 2021 | 2,792,083 |
| 2020 | 4,013,210 |
| 2019 | 8,742,068 |
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.