America swung into action after listening to India, this step is going to be taken to reduce visa waiting time

New Delhi: America has now swung into action after India raised the issue of long visa waiting lists. To reduce the waiting time for visas, the US Embassy is going to increase the number of its staff. After External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar raised the issue of long wait for visas with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this week, the US embassy in Delhi explained the steps being taken to rectify the situation.

Don Heflin, Minister of Consular Affairs at the US Embassy in New Delhi, said on Thursday that India is going to increase the number of temporary staff and drop boxes at the consulate in India and it will take less than a year, the Times of India reported. I expect Corona to return to its earlier state. The drop box means no appointment is required for those who already had a US visa and expired within a certain time frame. These measures will cut the waiting time for visas. He also said that 1 lakh appointments will be opened for H and L worker visa category in the next few weeks.

The US embassy said that the workforce would reach 100 percent by September 2023. Blaming the COVID-19 pandemic for the pendency of visa applications of Indian nationals, the US Embassy in Delhi said it expects the staff strength to return to pre-coronavirus conditions in less than a year. According to the American website, the appointment waiting time is showing 833 days for getting US visitor visa from India, while the appointment time from China is two days.

In fact, earlier this week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar raised the issue of pending US visa applications from India with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. On this, the top US diplomat said that he is sensitive to the matter and he has a plan to resolve it. After the US halted processing of almost all visa applications worldwide in March 2020 due to the pandemic, US visa services are now trying to clear pending applications.

Don Heflin of the US Embassy further said that the good thing is that they are recovering from Kovid and the problem of staff is also slowly ending. We had 50 per cent visa staff during and even after Corona and now we have 70 per cent. By next year, our staff strength will be 100%. After that we will be able to deal with visa applications as soon as possible. He further said that Washington is sending us temporary (staff). We are also going to get temporary (staff) from other big embassies.

Acknowledging that B1 (Business) and B2 (Visitor) have the longest waiting time for first time applicants, he said that we are going to work on reducing this also in the next few months. Wait a bit, we’ll fix it soon. Many Indians working in the US on H1 visas have also not been able to come home because they have to get their passports stamped before returning. Regarding them, Heflin said that there are people in the US on H and L visas who have not been able to come home and see their families since the start of Kovid. We sympathize with them a lot. We are going to open one lakh appointments for this category of visas in the coming time or next few weeks.

What US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said
After the US halted processing of almost all visa applications worldwide in March 2020 due to the pandemic, US visa services are now trying to clear pending applications. In response to a question about delays in visa applications, Blinken said, “Be patient with us.” It will be streamlined in the next few months, we are paying a lot of attention to it. He said, ‘On the question of visa, I am very sensitive about it.’

Blinken said that the US is trying to settle a large number of pending cases. Let us tell you that Indians constitute a major part of the recipients of H-1B and other work visas given to skilled foreign workers. Many of these are related to the technology sector. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to deploy foreign workers for specialized tasks specializing in technology.

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Tags: S Jaishankar, US Visa