How a Romanian Visa Agency Cut DS-160 Processing Time by 80%

VizeAmerica processes up to 200 DS-160 forms a week with a five-person team. Each one used to take 20–25 minutes. Now it takes under five.

Here's their story. You can also view the full case study page.

It Started in a Romanian Village

Before VizeAmerica was a business, it was a favor. Back in 2001, the founder was the only person in their village who spoke English and had internet access. Neighbors would come to the house for help filing paperwork to the US Consulate in Bucharest.

"We had lots of people come over to the house for me to help them file paperwork to the US Consulate in Bucharest, Romania."

In 2006, they put that knowledge online. vizeamerica.com launched as a free Romanian-language resource for US visa applicants — something the embassy itself didn't offer at the time.

"The US embassy had no Romanian pages back then. Then slowly we started offering paid services as more and more people found the website."

Word spread. SEO helped. The site became one of the most prominent results on Romanian search engines for US visa queries, and a paying business grew around it.

200 Forms a Week, 25 Minutes Each

By the time the team hit five staff, they were processing 40 to 200 DS-160 forms per week. Every form was filled out by hand. Every form took 20–25 minutes. At peak volume, that added up to roughly 1,000 hours a week on DS-160 work alone.

The errors were the worst part — not because they were dramatic, but because they were invisible. Extra spaces in form fields would silently fail validation. Clients would enter dates as day/month instead of month/day, and the mistake wouldn't surface until review. Small things, but at scale they ate hours.

Then came a client with 165 applicants in a single group.

"That is when I said to myself, OK, let's look for an automation solution or build one myself."

Five Minutes to Get Started

The founder found DS160.io, and the team adopted it the same day.

How long did onboarding take? Five minutes. No training sessions, no migration period. They opened the agency interface, started submitting forms, and immediately saw the difference.

What Changed

The numbers speak for themselves: forms that took 20–25 minutes now take 4–5.

"It took around 20-25 minutes for each form before we started using DS160.io, and that has allowed us to go down to 4-5 minutes per form, once we start the submission process via the agency interface."

The workflow is different too. Instead of manually entering every field, the team now reviews pre-filled data, runs a quick check, and kicks off the automated submission. The only manual step left is uploading the applicant's photo.

"We can go over the pre-filled details and do a fast check and then just start the submission process and wait 4-5 minutes for it to be completed."

The extra-spaces problem that used to cause silent validation failures? After VizeAmerica flagged it, DS160.io built automatic whitespace trimming into the platform — now a standard check for every user.

Weekly hours on DS-160 work dropped by more than half. That's hundreds of hours back, every week.

Where the Time Goes Now

The recovered time didn't just disappear into slack. The team redirected it to the work that actually requires expertise: scheduling visa interviews, managing client communications, and handling the steps that come after the DS-160 is filed.

"Staff is using the extra hours gained from the use of DS160.io to better manage the post-DS160 process: the actual visa interview scheduling steps."

More clients became manageable too. The bottleneck wasn't demand — it was capacity. Remove 80% of the time spent on data entry, and the same team can serve significantly more people.

Before and After

One Piece of Advice

When asked what they'd tell another agency owner who's on the fence:

"Start now! Don't wait until tomorrow. Ask me how."

Full Q&A with the VizeAmerica Founder

Below are the complete, unedited responses from our Q&A.

Briefly describe your agency — how many staff, what types of visa clients, and what languages they typically speak.

I started back in 2001 offering free advice to people who were applying for a US visa, as I was the only person in my village who spoke English and also was able to access the Internet, so we had lots of people come over to the house for me to help them file paperwork to the US Consulate in Bucharest, Romania. After 2006, we started vizeamerica.com as a website that used to have free details in Romanian (the US embassy had no Romanian pages back then) to advise people on how to apply for a visa. Then slowly we started offering paid services as more and more people found the website, and SEO efforts helped us be very prominent on the Romanian SERPs.

How many DS-160 forms were you processing per week, and roughly how long did each one take from intake to submission?

We are anywhere from 40-200 forms per week, with a staff of 5. It took around 20-25 minutes for each form before we started using DS160.io, and that has allowed us to go down to 4-5 minutes per form, once we start the submission process via the agency interface on ds160.io

How many hours per week were spent on DS-160 work specifically?

~1000 hours per week.

What was your biggest bottleneck or source of errors in that process?

The lack of checks for extra spaces in the fields (which, following our feedback, is now a standard check in the new ds160.io process) and people incorrectly inserting dates (month/day vs. day/month sets)

How long does a DS-160 take now, and how many are you processing per week?

4-5 minutes; the volume depends on the requests, but we're doing a lot more and much faster now.

How many hours per week go to DS-160 work now?

More than half of what used to :)

Has your error or revision rate changed? If so, by roughly how much?

Yes, by a lot. Now we can go over the pre-filled details and do a fast check and then just start the submission process and wait 4-5 minutes for it to be completed. Then we just go and manually upload the photo as the last step.

Have you been able to take on more clients or redirect staff time elsewhere? Any specifics?

Yes, more customers are now easier to manage, and also staff is using the extra hours gained from the use of ds160.io to better manage the post-DS160 process: the actual visa interview scheduling steps.

What prompted you to look for a different solution, and did you have any hesitations before trying DS160.io?

I was looking for a solution to automate the data entry, as it was already very difficult to manage all the forms, but the greatest challenge was a customer that had 165 applicants in a group, and that is when I said to myself, Ok, let's look for an automation solution or build one myself." :) - I found ds160.io and from that day onward, this is the only provider we use.

How long did it take your team to get up and running?

5 minutes

What would you tell another visa agency owner who's considering DS160.io?

Start now! Don't wait until tomorrow. Ask me how :)

VizeAmerica processes hundreds of DS-160 forms weekly through the DS160.io agency interface. Visit vizeamerica.com to learn more about their services.

Interested in what DS160.io can do for your agency? Learn more.