US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

I guess I am curious about this "visa shopping" problem - is it really a big deal? And if it is, how hard is it going to be for a motivated applicant to establish "proof of residence" in an arbitrary country? Are we talking about a utility bill?

Is this just going to derail world travelers who want to add a last minute US leg to their itinerary? That would seem entirely pointless.

Honestly I'm pretty confused.

I bet it's a minuscule amount. For a start, all they're shopping for is a shorter delay for the visa interview - maybe that is 1 month instead of 3 - and most people from countries that require visas will already be factoring that duration into their plans.

> how hard is it going to be for a motivated applicant to establish "proof of residence" in an arbitrary country

By residence they mean your legal status is a permanent resident, this is proven with a formal ID like green cards.

For us in the third world it is! As an example, in my country of residence, a non-national needs to wait more than a year to even get to an interview with a US consul.

Year or longer waits for B visas are common in India. Part of the problem is the statutory requirement that first-time applicants need an in-person interview. When I worked in a US consulate in India, we would have loved to have lowered the age at which we could waive interviews from 80 to 70 or even 65, but that would have required action in DC. We also would have loved to have had more staff, but were limited by the amount of diplomatic positions the Indian government would approve.