US visitor's visa interview wait time in India cut by 60%; domestic renewal of visas soon

The wait time for a US visitor's visa interview in India has been reduced by 60 per cent this year, according to a senior official. The official attributed it to several steps the United States has taken, including increasing the number of officials and opening other diplomatic missions to process these applications.

The goal of the State Department is to get 1 million visas issued this year, which would be above the pre-pandemic number, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services Julie Stufft told news agency PTI in an interview.

"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.

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, she said.

Stufft said that currently visa production in India is 40 per cent higher than it was before the pandemic and asserted that the State Department was working hard to bring down the wait time.

In February, the US reportedly had the highest on-record production of visas in India.

Stufft said that the team in the US is working very hard and they're well on their way to accomplishing the 1 million visa goal.

The State Department official further added that in addition to the visitor's visa, they are working on other types of visas including, student visas.

"Because we have been able to expand interview waivers, meaning fewer Indians need to come to the embassy or consulate for an interview, we can process that without seeing the applicant. That has helped us tremendously because we have had consular officers in dozens of countries who are actually remotely processing these Indian visas," Stufft told the news agency.

This has made it possible for people who don't need an interview, those who have travelled to the US before, to get their visa in a record time of less than two weeks, she said.

She also said that anyone who has to travel to the US urgently for any sort of humanitarian matter, those cases will be expedited.

Stufft also revealed that State Department is very excited about launching a pilot project on domestic renewal of visas soon.

Under this, holders of certain work visa categories who are living in the United States can apply for visa renewal without leaving the United States.

What this means in particular for a large number of tech workers from India is that people would not have to go back to India or another post in the world to apply for their visa, Stufft said.

(With PTI inputs)

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