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New Initiative By US Launched To Cut Visa Wait Time For Indians; All You Need To Know
Writer: Ronit Kumar Singh
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India, 23 Jan 2023 7:23 AM GMT
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Creatives : Ronit Kumar Singh
A confident and reliable journalist who always desires to toss the unheard voices. I cover politics and governance extensively through stories.
In an effort to cut delays in visa processing, the United States (US) mission in India will open additional slots for appointments of applicants to take place on select Saturdays in the coming months.
To cut delays in Visa processing in India, the United States (US) has launched several initiatives, including scheduling special interviews for applicants and increasing the number of consular staff to fasten the process. The US embassy in Delhi and consulates in Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai have also started conducting special interviews on Saturday.
The US Embassy in India on January 21 conducted the first special Saturday interview in an effort to reduce wait times for first-time visa applicants. The embassy said, “The US Embassy in New Delhi and Consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad all opened consular operations on Saturday to accommodate applicants who require in-person visa interviews.”
The additional interview day is just one of several initiatives the embassy took to address the backlog in visa applications due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The US State Department is also remotely processing the interview waiver cases for applicants with US visas.
According to officials, dozens of temporary consular officers from Washington will come to India between January and March 2023 to increase visa application processing capacity. As many as 2.5 lakhs B1 (Business Visa) and B2 (Tourism Visa) appointments have already been sanctioned by the US mission in India.
Efforts To Strengthen Visa Processing
The US mission in India also claimed that Consulate General in Mumbai had extended the weekday operational hours to facilitate additional applications and appointments. The mission also aims to reach a full staffing goal by April 2023 to process visas at a similar pace as it used to happen before the pandemic.
According to NDTV, as the travel restrictions have been lifted, the embassy and consulate offices are receiving many visa applications from Indian nationals for traveling to the US for jobs, work, or studies.
Currently, the Consulate General in Mumbai is facilitating the most number of applications in India and is one of the largest visa operations in the world. All the efforts are to shorten the wait time and strengthen the process of visa application appointments.
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