Life happens — a flight gets cancelled, a passport delay drags on, or you simply pick the wrong date in the portal. If you’ve missed a US visa interview, or you know you’re going to, the worst move is doing nothing and hoping the appointment quietly disappears. What actually happens next depends on three things: whether you cancel before or after the slot, whether your MRV fee is still valid, and how many reschedules your specific embassy or consulate allows.
How rescheduling actually works on the portal
All US nonimmigrant visa appointments are booked and managed through the CGI Federal-run usvisa-info.com (Applicant Information Service) accounts for your country. To reschedule a regular interview before the date arrives:
- Log in to your usvisa-info.com account for the post where you applied.
- Click Continue, then select Reschedule Appointment.
- The system shows available slots filtered by your visa class and location.
- Confirm the new date — you do not pay the MRV fee again if it’s still valid (see below).
Note the fine print on your original confirmation: the confirmation screen and email state a cutoff date/time after which no further changes are allowed for that slot, so don’t wait until the last minute if you already know you need to move it (usvisa-info.com FAQ).
Paid expedite appointments are the one hard exception. If you paid to expedite your interview date, that appointment can only be scheduled once — no reschedules are permitted at all, and missing it forfeits the expedite fee entirely (usvisa-info.com FAQ).
You already missed it — what to do right now
If the appointment has already passed:
- Don’t just try to book a new slot immediately. Sign in to your account, click Continue, and use the “Missed My Appointment” link — this flags the record correctly rather than leaving an unresolved no-show sitting on your file.
- Expect a mandatory 24-hour wait. The portal requires applicants to wait 24 hours before it will process a request to reschedule a missed appointment (usvisa-info.com FAQ).
- Check your remaining reschedule count in the account dashboard before booking again — if you’ve exhausted it, the system will prompt you to pay the MRV fee again for a fresh appointment slot.
Does your visa fee (MRV fee) survive a missed appointment?
This is the detail most applicants get wrong. The nonimmigrant visa application fee (MRV fee) is normally valid for one year from the date of payment, and that same payment can be reused for a new appointment as long as you rebook within that 12-month window — the interview date itself can fall after the year mark, but the appointment must be scheduled within it (travel.state.gov, Fees for Visa Services).
You’ll need to pay the MRV fee again only if:
- The one-year validity window has expired since you originally paid.
- You missed the appointment without cancelling first and your post’s policy treats an unresolved no-show as forfeiting that booking slot (this varies by embassy — confirm with yours).
- You’ve exceeded the maximum number of permitted reschedules for your visa category at that post.
The MRV fee itself is non-refundable and non-transferable between applicants under all circumstances — missing an interview does not entitle you to a refund, only to a rebooking within the fee’s validity period where your post’s rules allow it.
Reschedule limits vary by embassy — check yours
There is no single global cap. Depending on the post, the online system may allow anywhere from roughly one to six free reschedules for a standard nonimmigrant visa appointment; high-volume posts in high-demand countries have tightened this in recent policy updates, sometimes down to a single reschedule. Your usvisa-info.com account always shows the exact number of changes you have left for your specific case — don’t rely on generic numbers from forums, since this is one of the details that shifts most often between posts and even between visa categories at the same post.
Practical guidance if you’re running late or need to change plans
- Running late on interview day: contact the embassy/consulate’s visitor entry or call center as soon as you know, rather than after the fact — some posts will still see you if you’re within a short grace window, but this is entirely at the officer’s and post’s discretion, not a guaranteed right.
- Know you’ll miss it in advance: reschedule through the portal rather than letting it lapse into a no-show. A proactive reschedule simply consumes one of your allotted changes; an unresolved no-show can trigger extra scrutiny or a required waiting period at some posts. Cancelling in advance is uniformly the safer path.
- Passport or document delay: if the issue is a missing document rather than a scheduling conflict, weigh whether to reschedule versus attend and explain the gap — arriving without a required document can itself contribute to a refusal under section 214(b) for other reasons, which is a separate issue from a missed appointment (see our guide on 214(b) refusals and next steps).
- Confirm with your specific post. Reschedule limits, no-show consequences, and even whether the 24-hour wait applies exactly as described can differ by embassy or consulate. Always check the FAQ page for the specific post you’re applying through before assuming a rule you read elsewhere applies to you.
Related reading
If you’re prepping to rebook, it’s worth reviewing what to expect once you’re back in front of a consular officer — see our guide to common US visa interview questions. If you’re wondering whether you even need an in-person slot at all, check current interview waiver / dropbox eligibility, since a missed interview sometimes prompts people to ask whether they can skip the in-person step on the next attempt. And once you have a new date locked in, our US visa processing times guide covers realistic wait times for the next available slot at busy posts.
This article is general preparation guidance, not legal advice — appointment and fee-validity rules genuinely differ by embassy and consulate, so confirm the specifics with your post’s own usvisa-info.com FAQ before making a decision. If you’d rather have each step — from DS-160 status to interview scheduling to document checklists — tracked for you automatically, join the VisaMet waitlist for early access to our AI visa-application assistant.