The US Embassy in India on Monday announced that it has opened an additional 250,000 visa appointments for Indian travellers, including tourists, skilled workers, and students.
This expansion aims to help hundreds of thousands of Indian applicants secure timely interviews, a crucial step in fostering travel that strengthens the people-to-people connections vital to the US-India relationship.
The US Mission to India also said that it already processed over one million nonimmigrant visa applications for the second consecutive year.
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According to the Mission, during the student visa season this summer, a record number of applications were handled. Through this, all first-time students applicants were able to secure appointments across the five consular sections around India.
In 2024, more than than 1.2 million Indians have travelled to the US, marking a 35 per cent increase over the same period in 2023. At least six million Indians currently hold nonimmigrant visas, and the US the Mission continues to issue thousands more.
US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti highlighted, “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.”