The amount of visa fraud that exists is just mind blowing, and there are different flavors for every visa category that exists. The amount of staff assigned to

The amount of visa fraud that exists is just mind blowing, and there are different flavors for every visa category that exists. The amount of staff assigned to process visa applications is small and have to make a decision which has weight on their home country. Outsourcing the process as much as possible allows fraud patterns to be caught more quickly and slowing the process reduces the incentives for bad actors to push their luck, esp if they don’t get to hold their passport during the process. I say this as somebody that’s pro-immigration. The system sucks but it’s doing a service for the destination country and legit applicants. If a country is going to just stamp “approved” on most people, they wouldn’t bother with having consular staff process applications, they’d offer visa on arrival or visa waivers.