Want To Visit US? Appointments Are Now Open, But Your Interview Could Take Around 800 Days
Are you planning to visit the US? the good news is that after a two year pause, the United States has opened up interview slots for new visa applicants.
But the bad news is that you may have to wait for over two years and two months to get a visa interview slot.
800 days for visitors/ 400 for student visa
According to the US State Department website the waiting period for Indians for a visitor visa to the US has gone up to 800 days. The waiting period is nearly 400 days for student/exchange visitor visas and other non-immigrant visas.
US balmes COVID backlog
The unusually long waiting period is being blamed on the backlog of applications that has been pending since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indians make up a large proportion of the recipients of H-1B and other work visas granted to skilled foreign workers, many in the tech industry.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
Jaishankar raises visa delay with Blinken?
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in his meeting with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the issue of the backlog of visa applications from India.
¡°There have been some challenges of late, and I flagged it to Secretary Blinken and his team, and I have every confidence that they will look at some of these problems seriously and positively,¡± Jaishankar said.
¡°Bear with us. This will play out over the next few months, but we're very focused on it,¡± Blinken said in response to a question when asked about the historic delays in visa appointments that now runs into 800 days.
¡°On the question of visas, I'm extremely sensitive to this," Blinken said.
Blinken blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for a backlog of visa applications from Indian nationals.
"If it's any consolation, I can tell you that this is a challenge that we're facing around the world and it's a product largely of the COVID pandemic. Our ability to issue visas dropped dramatically during COVID,¡± he said as he explained the self-financing part of the issuing of visas.
Indians got the maximum student visas
Recently the The US Mission in India had said that the United States has issued a record-breaking 82,000?student visas?in 2022 to Indians, higher than any other country.
According to the US Mission, the 82,000?Indian students who were granted visas?this year accounts for nearly 20 per cent of all international students studying in the United States.
It said that the US Embassy in New Delhi and four Consulates in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai prioritised the?processing of student visa applications?from May to August to ensure that as many qualified students as possible made it to their programs of study in time for scheduled start dates.
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