On Thursday, the US embassy in India stated that interviews for student visas will begin in the middle of November and go until the end of December.
During a live Facebook conversation about the length of time it takes to process visas and other consular issues across India, Don Heflin, Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs at the US Embassy, made the same announcement (which was also streamed on Instagram)
Heflin declared the interviews would take place throughout mid-November towards the end of December and that we would open up for the initial half in mid-October and the second half in mid-November while fielding questions about student visas for the United States.
The US Mission in India has granted a record-breaking 82,000 visa applications in 2022 to date, according to embassy officials, who also noted that Indian students have obtained more US student visas than students from any other nation.
However, many people across the nation are worried about the holdup in the process of Indian applicants for US visas. They said that both students and working people were being “harmed” by the delay.
In response, the US Embassy in India posted a notice on its website earlier this month that read: Due to decreased staffing and innumerable virus outbreak interruptions to our processes as of March 2020.
consultation demand has risen throughout all visa classifications and waiting lists may be long and complicated for most regular non-immigrant appointment times now at U.S. Embassy in New Delhi as well as the embassies in Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
Through the end of December 2022, the Department of State said it has given consular officials permission to exclude certain types of visa applicants from having to appear in person for an interview.
Jaishankar had brought up the massive backlog of Indian visa applications to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, and the senior American diplomat responded that he was aware of the situation and had a strategy to handle it.
“I want to let individuals who are concerned about visa issues know that I understand their worry and the urgency, and that is precisely the reason why I picked up the subject,” he said.
Author: Astha Singh
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