WASHINGTON – The US government has earmarked $50 million in funding for the U.S. Department of State to reduce visa wait times for inbound international visitors.
The Congress approved the federal government’s spending on March 23 and the bill was signed into law by U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday; the spending would also help reduce the passport backlog.
As far as the details are concerned, the law gives the State Department some discretion. For instance, it doesn’t specifically restrict the spending for any visa category, such as for business and leisure rather than education.
Moreover, the law has not specified any country for which the visa wait time would be reduced. The spending is the follow-up of excessive lobbying by travel groups across the country who contend that the wait time for some categories hovers around 400.
The US government has taken multiple measures to reduce the wait time including waiving interviews for low-risk visa applicants, moving staff to countries with large backlogs, and hiring more processing staff; however, the steps were not sufficient for many applicants.
The government was also paying the opportunity cost as the applicants who had to wait long preferred changing their minds to move to other countries with swift visa processing.
It is to be mentioned that the State Department has not yet elaborated the measures it would take after the approval of spending or who would be the beneficiary of reduced wait times; however, it is expected that the overall situation would improve.
