Explained: How is US speeding up visa processing for Indians?

Indians have been complaining of long visa wait times for the US for a while now.

So much so that New Delhi has even taken up the issue with Washington.

However, now there looks to be some relief in sight.

On Thursday, a senior official at the US embassy said the waiting period for visas is slated to see a ‘significant fall’ by summer 2023 and that India is a ‘number 1’ priority for Washington.

“India is number one priority for Washington (for issuance of visas). Our aim is to bring the situation to the pre-Covid-19 level by the middle of next year,” the official said.

India has been one of the very few countries where applications for US visas saw a major upswing after coronavirus-related travel restrictions were lifted.

But what is the US doing to reduce wait times? Let’s take a closer look:

First, it is important to note that the US issued just around 82,000 visas over the past year.

The US is now aiming to issue around 1.2 million visas to Indians by next summer.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, the official acknowledged the US was ‘unprepared’ for the visa demand in the wake of COVID-19 norms being eased.

The official, speaking to Mint, blamed the shortage of personnel as the reason for the backlog.

“In an ideal world, there would be no disruptions and staff shortages,” the official said.

Washington is now undertaking a series of initiatives including hiring more personnel and increasing ‘drop box’ facilities.

The official, speaking to Indian Express, said the ‘drop box’ facilities will be expanded across several visa categories including student visas, business and tourist visas, and skilled workers visas.

The process used to apply for renewal of a US visa without the visa interview is known as the drop box facility.

The official added that in case a person has already obtained a visa in a certain category, she/he now becomes eligible for interview waiver, and can thus use the dropbox facility.

This move — subject to fulfillment of certain conditions — will significantly bring down waiting time for US visas in days to come, the official added.

The official said the interview waiver will include even those whose B1 and B2 (tourist and business) visas have expired in the past four years.

The wait time for B1, B2 (business and tourism) visas is also being brought down from around nine months, the official said.

Broadly, the applicants having a US visa within a span of the last four years are eligible for drop box facility.

The official said priority is also being accorded to cut the waiting time for the students’ visas, especially for those looking for renewal of their visas.

Though students who have in the past travelled to the United States on tourist visas can also seek an interview waiver, they may be called for biometrics in case it wasn’t done earlier, the official said further said.

“Opening the 100,000 additional slots for H and L visas cut the wait time, which was more than a year earlier, to about half. The wait time for those using the drop box for B-1 and B-2 visas continues to be several months. We will see progress over the next nine months,” the official told Hindustan Times.

The official added drop boxes were also being sent elsewhere for processing.

The official told the Hindustan Times reducing wait time for non-immigrant work visas such as H and L categories will be a priority.

The US will initially focus “aggressively” on applicants in these categories using the “drop box” facility, or those who already were issued a US visa and are exempted from interviews, before taking up the case of first-time applicants, the official added.

The official further said Washington is attempting to expedite the process is for crew visas used by airline and cruise staff, as per Indian Express.

Washington has already identified H (H1B) and L category visas for Indians as its priority,  and released nearly 1,00,000 slots for those wanting to renew the visas.

The plan is to issue one lakh visas every month.

The wait time for certain categories has already been brought down to around nine months from earlier 450 days.

The official also said India is expected to move to the number two place from current number three in terms of the number of visas being issued by the US.

Currently, Mexico and China are ahead of India.

With inputs from agencies

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