People seeking renewal of U.S. visa can now submit their applications through dropbox, the U.S. Embassy has said while clarifying that such requests would not be entertained through email.
According to John Ballard, the consular chief at the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai, the U.S. embassy and consulates in India have prepared to receive a record number of visas from Indian students in 2023.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price had earlier said that the U.S. issued more student visas in the fiscal year 2022 than in any year since 2016, adding that its embassy and consulates in India in particular broke their all-time record for the number of student visas issued in a single fiscal year.
“It was the most students that we have ever adjudicated here in India and we expect in 2023, we will have even more Indian students that will be coming into apply for visas,” Mr. Ballard told PTI.
Last month, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said that the country is making “every effort to reduce the waiting time for visa interview appointments in India as soon as possible”.
“Visa processing is recovering faster than projected and over the coming year, we expect to reach pre-pandemic processing levels,” Mr. Price told reporters at his daily news conference.
On January 22, the U.S. also said it was launching a “surge” in staffing and a number of other measures to increase visa processing capacity across the country.
Apart from increasing the staff numbers and opening on Saturdays, the U.S. embassy is extending its hours of operation, expanding conditions to offer those who have previously been given visas “interview waivers” or process them through “remote interviews”, and offering slots in other countries for Indians as third country nationals (TCN).
(With inputs from PTI)
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