NEW DELHI – The wait time for US visas is being reduced for applicants from India in a major relief for the youngsters plenty of whom end up in Silicon Valley.
Eric Garcetti, the United States Ambassador to India, has confirmed that President Joe Biden has tasked him with reducing waiting periods for American visas in India.
It is to be noted that the current waiting period for obtaining a US visa in India extends to 250 days; however, with the fresh directives directly from Biden, the wait time is bound to be slashed.
In an interview with news agency ANI, Garcetti remarked that the president instructed him to diminish visa waiting times in India highlighting that it’s the first time a president has ever made such a statement to an ambassador in any country.
Regarding the statistics, US Bureau of Consular Affairs Assistant Secretary Rena Bitter said that last year, the Embassy in India processed 1.4 million visas, marking an incredible surge in numbers across all visa categories.
The official elaborated that there is no wait time at all except in one area of travel adding that in this category, there is still some wait time, specifically for individuals traveling to the United States for tourism for the first time.
In a separate development, the US government has earmarked $50 million in funding for the 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; 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.
