Special interviews are being offered for first time applicants and consular staff are being increased. The US mission in India is also increasing the number of consular officers working in the country.
The US has initiated new steps to reduce visa processing delays in India, including arranging special interviews for first-time applicants and expanding consular employee strength. On Jan 21, the Delhi’s US embassy and its consulates in Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Hyderabad held a “special Saturday interview days” as a part of a multi-branched strategy to minimize the backlog of visa appointments.
“On January 21, the US mission in India inaugurated the first in a series of special Saturday interview days,” the US embassy stated on Sunday.
“The United States Embassy in New Delhi, as well as Consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad, all opened consular operations on Saturday to accommodate applicants who require in-person visa interviews,” said the New Delhi’s US Embassy.
In the following months, the mission will continue to provide “extra slots” for appointments on certain Saturdays.
According to the report, the US State Department has begun remote processing of interview waiver cases for applicants with previous US visas.
It stated that hundreds of temporary consular employees from Washington and other embassies will arrive in India between January and March 2023 to improve visa processing capacity.
More than 2,50,000 extra B1/B2 appointments were made available by the US embassy in India. B-1 is a business visa, whereas B-2 is a tourist visa.
According to the mission, the Consulate General in Mumbai also extended its weekday operational hours to accommodate extra appointments.
According to the statement, after travel restrictions were abolished, the mission to India has made it a priority to enable genuine travel, adjudicating over 8,00,000 non-immigrant visas in 2022, including a big number of job and student visas.
According to the embassy, the Mumbai’s Consulate General now arbitrates the most visa requests in India and is also one of the leading visa operations in world.
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