US has started new initiatives with the goal of reducing delays in visa processing in India, including scheduling special interviews for first-time applicants and strengthening consular staff.
The US embassy in Delhi and the consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad held “special Saturday interview days” on January 21 as part of a multi-pronged effort to reduce the visa backlog.
“On January 21, the US mission in India launched the first in a series of special Saturday interview days, as part of a larger effort to reduce wait times for first-time visa applicants,” the US embassy said on Sunday.
“The United States 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,” it said in a statement.
Mission will keep making additional slot
In the upcoming months, the mission will keep making “additional slots” available for appointments to take place on particular Saturdays.
“The United States 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,” it said in a statement.
“These additional interview days are just one component of a multi-pronged initiative to address the backlog in visa processing caused by COVID-19,” it said.
It stated that for applicants with previous US visas, the US State Department has established remote processing of interview waiver cases.
It added that to improve the capacity for processing visas, dozens of temporary consular officers from Washington and other embassies will travel to India between January and March 2023.
More than 2,50,000 extra B1/B2 appointments were made available by the US mission in India. B-2 is a tourist visa, whereas B1 is a business visa.
The mission mentioned that in order to facilitate more appointments, the consulate general in Mumbai also extended work time during the week.
“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 embassy said.
The mission to India has made it a priority to enable legal travel since travel restrictions have been relaxed, according to the statement, and will adjudicate over 8,00,000 nonimmigrant visas in 2022, including a record number of student and job visas.
“In every other visa category, interview wait times in India are at pre-pandemic levels or lower,” it said.
According to the embassy, the Consulate General in Mumbai currently manages the majority of visa decisions in India and runs one of the largest visa operations worldwide.
“Our consular teams across India are putting in the extra hours to meet the needs of international travellers and bring down wait times,” said Mumbai Consular Chief John Ballard. “This is part of a Mission wide effort to find innovative solutions to facilitate travel to the United States,” the official said.
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