Monitoring Desk
The US embassy and its consulates in India have started several new programmes to speed up the visa application process and reduce wait time for Indians.
Indians visitors have to wait between 500 and 600 days for the visa process. The Covid-19 outbreak, according to the US embassy, had impacted its services in India and caused a backlog of applications.
According to the BBC, the pandemic impacted numerous Indian businesses and individuals who intend to move to the US to reside or work.
“International tourists’ demands and wait times are being met by our consular employees across India,” according to Mumbai Consular Chief John Ballard.
The current wait time for visitors is roughly 1.5 years, compared to 60-280 days for Indians applying for work visas. Indian tourists have to wait longer than those from European cities, which often have to wait about 20 days.
US State Department
According to estimates from the US State Department, candidates must wait about 30 to 35 days in Asian cities like Beijing and Colombo.
However, the waiting period in India has decreased from the approximately three years that many candidates had to endure in 2022. The US Mission has announced that to accommodate applicants who require in-person visa interviews, its embassies in Delhi and consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad would now be open on Saturdays.
The consulate general in Mumbai has also extended its daily operation hours to accommodate additional appointments. According to the mission, the number of consular employees permanently assigned to offices in India would shortly expand by the US State Department.
To enhance its processing capacity, it will also add dozens of temporary consular officials from Washington and other embassies by the end of March. The US mission in India has prioritized making it easier for people to travel legally and will adjudicate over 800,000 non-immigrant visas in 2022, including a record number of student and job visas. It also said that in 2022, it would offer 250,000 more appointments for B1/B2 visas, which are necessary for tourists.
