Source: Cato Institute

This summer, a quarter of all US consulates reported wait times of more than a year for tourist or business-travel visa interviews. The average wait was 247 days. In Colombia, it reached 846 days.

Covid disruption is behind these eye-watering delays, but painful migration bureaucracy is nothing new. For example, an entrepreneur who wished to immigrate to the US in 2019 could expect a 19-month processing time.