The US Embassy and Consulates in India issued over 1.4 million visas during 2023. It has also reduced the appointment wait time by 75 per cent, even as the country saw an unprecedented rise in demand for visas across all classes. Indians now represent one-tenth of US visa applicants across the globe.
The US Government saw a 60 per cent increase in applications last year, meeting demand with a three-month staffing surge in Mumbai. Meanwhile, New Delhi set a student visa record for the third consecutive with more than 140,000 such documents greenlit in 2023. Indian students have now become the largest group of international graduate students, making up over a quarter of the over one million foreign students studying in the US.
In addition, “Visitor visas (B1/B2) have also seen a surge, representing the second highest number of applications in the US’s consulate history. It is being cited that the consulate received over 700,000 applications in 2023. The reason being, improvement in the process and investments in staffing have also reduced the appointment waiting time for visitor visas from an average of 1,000 days to only 250 days around the country,” read an official communique from the US Embassy.
The developments come even as the US Government prepares to launch a pilot program allowing eligible H1B holders to renew their visas in the US. This shows the growing strength of the partnership between India and the USA under the Narendra Modi Government. MEA under S. Jaishankar has been pivotal in making this happen.
Employment visas remain a top priority, with officials consolidating most petition-based visa processing in Chennai and Hyderabad to increase efficiency. More than 380,000 employment visas for Indians and their family members were processed in 2023.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai Consulate eliminated a queue of over 31,000 immigrant visa cases delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is ready for scheduling to obtain an appointment within the standard, pre-pandemic appointment window,” the official document adds.
