NEW DELHI: The United States has a goal to process over 10,000 nonimmigrants visa applications this year in India. US government data shows that just over 10,000 nonimmigrant visas were issued to Indians in fiscal years 2017 and 2018. Uncle Sam has taken several steps in recent months to clear the backlog that has reduced interview wait times for visitor visas from nearly three years last November to two years now — though it’s still a long wait. Meanwhile, the US Department of Commerce released data on Monday showing that Indians were the country’s third-biggest foreign visitors last year.
A US Embassy spokesman said: “The US Mission to India has already processed more than two lakh visa applications at our Embassy and Consulates in India (so far this calendar year) and we are on track to achieve our goal Achieve to process more than 10 lakh nonimmigrant visa applications in 2023. Our goal of processing 1 million visa applications includes nonimmigrant visas of all categories.”
The U.S. Department of State processed approximately 90,000 nonimmigrant visa applications worldwide in 2022. Mission Million “is an India-specific effort to further strengthen people-to-people ties between our two countries,” the spokesman added.
With China yet to fully reopen, Indians have emerged as the biggest globetrotters, getting the most visas to several key destinations, and the US is pulling out all the stops to shave off the nearly two years for visitor visa interview cases. The US has taken several steps to reduce visa wait times in India – which last year nearly hit the 1,000-day mark for visitor visas, B1 (business) and B2 (tourist), interview cases. These included screening more applicants for interview waivers, sending case boxes abroad for decision, and recruiting temp workers.
Despite long waits for visas and sky-high airfares, Indians are flocking to the United States. At over 14 lakh, Indians were the third-largest overseas visitors there in 2022. The total number of international visitors to the US in 2022 was nearly 5.1 million — a 128% increase from 2021, but still 64% of total international visitor arrivals in 2019.
While Canada (1.4bn) and Mexico (1.2bn), which shares a land border with the US, remain the top two source markets, the top overseas markets were the UK (34.2 lakh), followed by Germany (15th lakh) and then India (14.5 lakh). “New York reported the largest volume of visitor arrivals as a port of entry for 2022 (followed by) Miami and Los Angeles,” the department said in a statement.
A US Embassy spokesman said: “The US Mission to India has already processed more than two lakh visa applications at our Embassy and Consulates in India (so far this calendar year) and we are on track to achieve our goal Achieve to process more than 10 lakh nonimmigrant visa applications in 2023. Our goal of processing 1 million visa applications includes nonimmigrant visas of all categories.”
The U.S. Department of State processed approximately 90,000 nonimmigrant visa applications worldwide in 2022. Mission Million “is an India-specific effort to further strengthen people-to-people ties between our two countries,” the spokesman added.
With China yet to fully reopen, Indians have emerged as the biggest globetrotters, getting the most visas to several key destinations, and the US is pulling out all the stops to shave off the nearly two years for visitor visa interview cases. The US has taken several steps to reduce visa wait times in India – which last year nearly hit the 1,000-day mark for visitor visas, B1 (business) and B2 (tourist), interview cases. These included screening more applicants for interview waivers, sending case boxes abroad for decision, and recruiting temp workers.
Despite long waits for visas and sky-high airfares, Indians are flocking to the United States. At over 14 lakh, Indians were the third-largest overseas visitors there in 2022. The total number of international visitors to the US in 2022 was nearly 5.1 million — a 128% increase from 2021, but still 64% of total international visitor arrivals in 2019.
While Canada (1.4bn) and Mexico (1.2bn), which shares a land border with the US, remain the top two source markets, the top overseas markets were the UK (34.2 lakh), followed by Germany (15th lakh) and then India (14.5 lakh). “New York reported the largest volume of visitor arrivals as a port of entry for 2022 (followed by) Miami and Los Angeles,” the department said in a statement.
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