The wait time, when it comes to a US visitor’s visa interview for Indians, has been reduced by 60 per cent this year, Press Trust of India reported while citing a senior official in the Biden administration. The said official attributed the claim to a number of measures taken by the USCIS, including opening more diplomatic missions in India as well as abroad to process visitor’s visa applications.
As travel to the United States opened up following a marked drop in Covid cases worldwide, India was one of the countries from where the number of visitor visa applications were significantly high.
B1 and B2 visa applications: Concerns over long waiting period
First time visa applicants, especially the ones applying under B1 (business) and B2 (tourist) categories, face long waiting periods. In October 2022, the waiting period of first time B1 and B2 visa applicants from India was nearly 1,000 days.
US to issue one million visas this year
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services Julie Stufft told Press Trust of India that the US State Department aims to issue 1 million visas this year, overtaking the pre-pandemic number of about 800,000.
“We have increased the number of officers going to India. We have set up arrangements, which is unprecedented, with other embassies in the world like Bangkok to take Indians who are seeking visas. We are opening a new consulate in Hyderabad… and we’re just focused on making sure that we can bring the wait time down in India,” she said.
Stufft added that Frankfurt, London and Abu Dhabi have taken a lot of Indian citizens who are seeking visas.
“We have asked these missions to take Indians as if they were from their own host country. Especially in places like Bangkok where there is no visa required for Indians and it is a relatively short flight. Obviously this is not ideal. We want Indians to be able to apply in India, and that’s where we’ll get to,” she said.
More than 100 US diplomatic missions have been issuing visas to Indians.
“As a result of all of these efforts, the visitor visa interview wait time has decreased by 60 per cent just in the last couple of months. This is a result of all the work that we’ve put into making sure that Indians who wish to travel to the US can do so,” she explained.
The US Embassy in India has said that with the lifting of Covid-related travel restrictions, facilitation of legitimate travel has been prioritised. Over 8,00,000 non-immigrant visas were issued in 2022, including record numbers of both student and employment visas.
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“In every other visa category, interview wait times in India are at pre-pandemic levels or lower,” the embassy said in a statement in January this year.
Stufft said that currently “visa production in India is 40 per cent higher than what it was before the pandemic,” adding that the State Department was working hard to bring down the wait time.
In February, the US had the highest on-record production of visas in India.
“Our team there is working very hard and they’re well on their way to accomplishing the 1 million visa goal,” Stufft said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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