The US embassy in India has opened a further 250,000 visa appointments to satisfy rising demand from Indian vacationers, expert employees and college students.
The announcement comes as greater than 1.2 million Indians have travelled to the US thus far in 2024, a 35% enhance on the identical interval in 2023.
“Throughout our pupil visa season this summer time, we continued to course of file numbers, and all first-time pupil candidates have been capable of get hold of an appointment at one in all our 5 consular sections round India,” the US embassy in India wrote.
Not less than six million Indian residents presently have a non-immigrant visa to go to the US, with over 140,000 research visas issued to US-bound Indian college students in 2023 and file numbers anticipated for 2024.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden set an formidable objective to enhance and expedite the visa course of and I’m proud to say that we now have delivered on that promise,” mentioned Eric Garcetti, US ambassador to India.
India turned the primary supply of worldwide college students within the US for the second yr in 2024, in keeping with Garcetti, talking on the annual IC3 convention in Delhi final month.
As India and the US strengthen their diplomatic relations, Garcetti added that the US was additionally aiming to ship extra of its college students to India.
All first-time pupil candidates have been capable of get hold of an appointment at one in all our 5 consular sections round India
US Embassy in India
The US Division of State often updates information on international visa wait instances, with Dhaka, Bangladesh presently experiencing the longest wait instances of as much as 265 days, as of September 2024.
Embassies in India, which have been experiencing estimated wait instances of 245 days in 2022, at the moment are recording wait instances of 56 and 70 days respectively in New Delhi and Mumbai, but these usually fluctuate and have been right down to lower than 4 weeks earlier this yr.
Wait instances are largely depending on staffing at US consulates, with consular officers analyzing visa overstay charges and financial development charges for various international locations.
In 2022, US Homeland Safety information revealed visa overstay charges with Ghana at 18% and Nigeria at 20% compared to India’s overstay fee of three%.
The US has additionally expanded its visa providers within the Philippines, opening a brand new Visa Utility Centre with an up to date on-line appointment system on September 28.
As of 2022/23 there have been 3,818 college students from the Philippines learning within the US, in keeping with Open Doorways information.
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