Where does the time actually go in the whole process?

Three separate stages add up to your total timeline, and the one buyers tend to underestimate isn’t the fair’s own process — it’s what happens after you leave the fair’s system entirely and hand your documents to a consulate.

Stage one: buyer registration

Registering for your buyer account and badge is generally quick, measured in business days rather than weeks, whether you apply online or in person.

Stage two: the invitation letter

Once your account is set up, requesting the invitation letter is close to instant — it’s generated automatically the moment you submit the request, with no manual review. The only real waiting here is for your account itself to be approved first.

Stage three: your consulate’s own processing — usually the longest

This is the stage most buyers underestimate, because it happens entirely outside the fair’s own system. Processing time varies by consulate, by visa category, and often by how busy a given period is — some consulates offer a faster, paid expedited service, others don’t. This guide can’t state a single processing time that applies across every consulate covered in this guide, and treats any specific figure you see quoted elsewhere as an estimate for that source’s own experience, not a guarantee for yours.

Plan around the stage you don’t control

Since the fair’s own steps are quick and the consulate’s timeline is the real variable, apply for your badge and invitation as soon as you reasonably can, then treat the remaining time before your trip as your buffer for whatever your specific consulate’s processing actually takes — rather than working backward from a fixed number of days for the whole process.

What’s next

Check your specific country’s page for anything it states about that consulate’s own processing time, or start with registration if you haven’t yet.