“We have increased the number of officers going to India. We have set up arrangements, which is unprecedented, with other embassies in the world like Bangkok to take Indians who are seeking visas. We are opening a new consulate in Hyderabad…and we’re just focused on making sure that we can bring the wait time down in India.”
— Julie Stufft, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services
The wait time for a US visitor’s visa interview in India has gone down by 60 per cent this year, according to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services Julie Stufft. She told PTI in an interview that the goal of the State Department was to get to 1 million visas issued this year, which would be above the pre-pandemic number.
“We have increased the number of officers going to India. We have set up arrangements, which is unprecedented, with other embassies in the world like Bangkok to take Indians who are seeking visas. We are opening a new consulate in Hyderabad…and we’re just focused on making sure that we can bring the wait time down in India,” she said.
Stufft noted that Frankfurt, London and Abu Dhabi had taken a lot of Indian citizens who are seeking visas. “We have asked these missions to take Indians as if they were from their own host country. Especially in places like Bangkok where there is no visa required for Indians and it is a relatively short flight.” She mentioned, “Obviously this is not ideal. We want Indians to be able to apply in India, and that’s where we’ll get to,” she said.
Stufft also said that the State Department was launching a pilot project on domestic renewal of visas soon where holders of certain work visa categories who were living in the United States could apply for visa renewal without leaving the United States
With more than 100 US diplomatic missions issuing visas to Indians, Stufft said, “As a result of all of these efforts, the visitor visa interview wait time has decreased by 60 per cent just in the last couple of months. This is a result of all the work that we’ve put into making sure that Indians who wish to travel to the US can do so.”
She said that currently, “visa production in India is 40 per cent higher than it was before the pandemic” and that the State Department was working to bring down the wait time.
“Our team there is working very hard and they’re well on their way to accomplishing the 1 million visa goal,” Stufft said. In addition to the visitors visas, the State Department official said they were working on other types of visas including, student visas.
“Because we have been able to expand interview waivers, meaning fewer Indians need to come to the embassy or consulate for an interview, we can process that without seeing the applicant. That has helped us tremendously because we have had consular officers in dozens of countries who are actually remotely processing these Indian visas,” Stufft said. This has made it possible for people who don’t need an interview, those who have travelled to the US before, to get their visa in a record time of less than two weeks, she said.
She said anyone who had to travel to the US urgently for any sort of humanitarian matter, those cases would be expedited. “But make your appointment, find the place that you can go in India or outside of India where it’s possible. And bear with us as we bring these wait times down. We’re very excited to be hitting records every month with the number of visas that we’re issuing in India,” she said.
Stufft also said that the State Department was launching a pilot project on domestic renewal of visas soon where holders of certain work visa categories who were living in the United States could apply for visa renewal without leaving the United States.
**********************************************************
Readers
These are extraordinary times. All of us have to rely on high-impact, trustworthy journalism. And this is especially true of the Indian Diaspora. Members of the Indian community overseas cannot be fed with inaccurate news.
Pravasi Samwad is a venture that has no shareholders. It is the result of an impassioned initiative of a handful of Indian journalists spread around the world. We have taken the small step forward with the pledge to provide news with accuracy, free from political and commercial influence. Our aim is to keep you, our readers, informed about developments at ‘home’ and across the world that affect you.
Please help us to keep our journalism independent and free.
In these difficult times, to run a news website requires finances. While every contribution, big or small, will makes a difference, we request our readers to put us in touch with advertisers worldwide. It will be a great help.
For more information: pravasisamwad00@gmail.com
