US opens 250,000 more visa appointments for Indian travelers

The US Mission to India has opened an additional 250,000 visa appointments for Indian travelers, including tourists, skilled workers, and students, to meet growing demand.

“The recently released new slots will help hundreds of thousands of Indian applicants take timely interviews, facilitating the travel which is the backbone of the people-to-people ties that underpin the US-India relationship,” the US embassy in New Delhi stated Monday.

The US Mission to India has already surpassed one million nonimmigrant visa applications for the second consecutive year.

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“During our student visa season this summer, we continued to process record numbers, and all first-time student applicants were able to obtain an appointment at one of our five consular sections around India,” the statement added. “We are now focused on bringing families together, connecting businesses, and facilitating tourism.”

More than 1.2 million Indians have traveled to the United States year to date in 2024, a 35% increase over the same period in 2023, it noted. At least six million Indians already have a nonimmigrant visa to visit the United States, and each day, the Mission issues thousands more,

As US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti recently noted, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden set an ambitious goal to improve and expedite the visa process and I’m proud to say that we have delivered on that promise.  Our consular teams at the embassy and four consulates work tirelessly to ensure that we meet the surging demand.”

Efforts to reduce visa backlogs caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have also been underway, resulting in a 75% reduction in wait times for visitor visa appointments in 2023.

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India sends almost three fourths (72%) of highly skilled workers on H-1B visas and the second highest number of students (267,000, or 25%), according to a new study of college-educated immigrants in the United States by Migration Policy Institute, (MPI), a Washington, DC-based think tank.