The US Mission to India opened an additional 250,000 visa appointments for Indian travelers, including tourists, skilled workers, and students.
The recently released new slots will help hundreds of thousands of Indian applicants take timely interviews, facilitating travel, which is the backbone of the people-to-people ties that underpin the US-India relationship, the US Embassy in New Delhi announced in an official statement on Monday.
Sharing a post on X, the US Embassy in India wrote, “The US Mission to India has opened an additional 250,000 visa appointments for Indian travelers, including tourists, skilled workers, and students.”
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1M Visa for Non-immigrant Travel
The US Mission to India has already surpassed one million non-immigrant visa applications for the second consecutive year, according to the US embassy in New Delhi.
During our student visa season this summer, we continued to process record numbers, and all first-time student applicants were able to obtain an appointment at one of our five consular sections around India. We are now focused on bringing families together, connecting businesses, and facilitating tourism.
“More than 1.2 million Indians have traveled to the United States year to date in 2024, a 35 percent increase over the same period in 2023,” the statment added.
At least six million Indians already have a nonimmigrant visa to visit the United States, and each day, the Mission issues thousands more.
Efforts to Improve VISA policies
As US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti recently noted, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden set an ambitious goal to improve and expedite the visa process, and I’m proud to say that we have delivered on that promise. Our consular teams at the embassy and four consulates work tirelessly to ensure that we meet the surging demand.”
(Inputs from ANI)
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