The US mission to India recently announced the release of more than 250,000 additional B1/B2 visa appointments. While B1 visa is for applicants in pursuit of business purpose in the US, the B2 visa is solely for the tourists..
“By this summer, the US Mission in India will be at full staffing, and we expect to be processing visas at levels from prior to the Covid-19 pandemic,” the statement said.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to reduction from the Department`s visa processing capacity, and lots of our embassies and consulates had been at instances to provide emergency services. With travel restrictions being lifted, the U.S. Mission to India has made it a concern to facilitate valid tour and adjudicated over 800,000 nonimmigrant visas in 2022, inclusive of file numbers of each scholar and employment visas.
In each different visa category, interview wait instances in India are at pre-pandemic degrees or lower. The purpose behind this initiative therefore is to have the U.S. Mission to India working at this absolutely increased rate this summer. The B1/B2 visa will offer greater possibilities to Indian residents to go to the USA for commercial enterprise meetings, conferences, and different expert engagements, in addition to tourism and leisure.
Relations between India and the United States have strengthened in recent years and the decision to issue additional B1/B2 visas reflects this. TThe United States and India expect that the increase in consular officials will further strengthen their economic relationship and provide more opportunities for future economic exchanges.
Also importantly, the US embassy in New Delhi, along with the consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, organized a special Saturday interview day on January 21, 2023 as part of a larger effort to reduce wait times for first-time visa applicants. To deal with visa processing delays in India, the United States Embassy stated it’s far beginning unique interview slots for first-time candidates on Saturdays and additionally growing the energy of its consular staff.
The consulate in Mumbai extended its weekday operating hours to make space for additional appointments on a first-come, first-serve basis. These interview days are mainly for applicants who require in-person visa interviews. The coming months is said to also witness additional slots for appointments to take place on such similar Saturdays.
The United States has decided to take such steps to address the backlog in visa processing that has resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic. The statement said the pandemic resulted in “profound reductions” in the department of state’s visa processing capacity.
Additionally, the US State Department has implemented remote processing of interview waivers for applicants who already hold US visas. These candidates no longer have to show up for an in-person interview.
The State Department announced that it will increase the number of consular officials permanently assigned to embassies and consulates in India.. The statement reads;
“Between January and March 2023, dozens of temporary consular officers from Washington and other embassies will arrive in India to increase processing capacity”.
Even though the US is to begin with targeted student visas as addressing the backlog from the time of the pandemic, after issuing more than 82,000 visas to Indian college students in 2022, the point of interest shifted to decreasing the wait instances for non-immigrant visas together with the H and L categories, inclusive of the coveted H-1B visas, B-1 commercial enterprise visa, B-2 tourism visa, and visas for crews of delivery organizations and airlines.
The US expects the number of applications for all types of visas in India to grow to around 100,000 per month – or about 1.2 million per year from 2023, making India the second largest country known for visa applications after China..
Key Takeaways
“In every other visa category, interview wait times in India are at pre-pandemic levels or lower,” the statement said. Thus the aforementioned initiatives by the United State Embassy in conjunction with Consulates in Mumbai is further re-iterated for easier reference in bullet points below:
- To increase the B1/B2 visa processing capacity;
- To reduce wait time for first-time visa applicants;
- To open additional slots for appointments on select Saturdays;
- To increase employment of consular officials to the Embassy;
- To further extend weekly operating hours in Mumbai Consulate if possible in order to take additional appointments.
