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WASHINGTON: People-to-people ties type the bedrock of the India-US relationship and addressing the visa wait time situation is essential to sustaining them, senior administration officers mentioned right here.
Reducing the visa wait time is a high precedence for secretary of state Tony Blinken, deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia Nancy Jackson advised Indian reporters at a roundtable organised on Tuesday by the state division, together with the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS).
“As I look at the relationship, it strikes me that people-to-people ties between our two nations are really the bedrock of what is one of our most consequential relationships in the world and that’s the US-India relationship. We can’t underscore that enough. So addressing the visa wait times that we’ve been facing is critical not only to maintaining those people-to-people ties, but to expand them,” Jackson mentioned.
FIIDS has been working with the Biden Administration for the previous a number of months on addressing varied points dealing with Indian-Americans, notably the visa wait time.
“It is the number-one priority that we’re facing right now. We are absolutely committed to getting us out of this situation where anyone in India seeking a visa appointment or a visa would have to wait a long time. That is certainly not our ideal,” mentioned deputy assistant secretary of state for Consular Affairs Julie Stufft.
The State Department, she mentioned, has taken a number of steps to scale back the visa wait time. These embody increasingly classes being waived off from visa interviews, sending dozens of officers to India to conduct the interviews, screening of visa purposes by officers on the state division right here within the US, involving officers from its different diplomatic missions within the course of and opening up its embassies and missions in different international locations so far as Thailand and Germany for Indian visa-seekers for an in-person interview.
“For first-time visitor appointments, we’ve cut a year and two months off the wait time already. Now, the second year we take off of that is going to be harder than the first, but we’re going to get there,” she mentioned.
“All non-visitor visa types — students, workers, and anyone who has travelled previously to the United States — have very very low wait times. Our H-1B and F visa (for students) wait times were just as high as the tourist wait times six months ago. We brought down those categories,” Stufft mentioned.
“We brought down the wait for people who don’t need an interview. We made a lot of progress on that. And just because of the sheer number of visitor visa applications, which is our largest category around the world, certainly in India, we still have that one wait time to go after,” she mentioned.
“Also, we’ve waived interviews for anyone who’s been a repeat traveller,” Stufft mentioned.
More could be achieved, she famous. “Because we have interviews waived for a large number of Indian visa applicants, we can have people all over the world doing those cases, not just in India. So right now, today, we have dozens and dozens of officers around the world and here in Washington, right down the street doing Indian visas on behalf of our Mission in India,” the state division official mentioned.
In that means, they’ll focus in India on individuals who want that interview. “And we can let other people concentrate on the people who don’t need the interview. So, someone in China could be doing Indian cases, and those are printed in India and sent back locally. This has been a major help to us,” Stufft mentioned.
“We’ve also opened up other missions, and this is actually unprecedented. We’ve asked other US embassies to take on Indian visa applicants specifically if they choose to travel there. Our biggest place where we’re doing this right now is Bangkok. Thailand is a place where Indian citizens don’t need a visa to travel to. And anyone who even needs a visitor visa appointment can go to Bangkok,” she mentioned.
Observing that it’s not the best scenario for anybody to have to go away their residence nation for an American visa appointment, she mentioned that within the meantime, it is rather helpful. The US Mission in Frankfurt amongst others is permitting individuals who perhaps are within the United States travelling out to go there relatively than come all the way in which again residence, she mentioned, including that this has actually helped people who find themselves urgently attempting to journey on a customer visa.
“We have seen this actually working. In the last few months, Indian citizens have applied to more than a hundred different US embassies overseas, and many of them are travelling from India for that appointment. So this is something people are taking advantage of,” Stufft mentioned.
The US has additionally despatched a number of dozens of workers to India to course of the visa purposes. They are working weekends and in shifts throughout the week, she mentioned. “Because of them being there, we’ve made some really incredible progress,” she mentioned.
Because of those steps, Stufft mentioned the US has issued 36 per cent extra visas than it did earlier than the pandemic in India throughout regular occasions. This is anticipated to go up because the 12 months goes on, she asserted.
“We are throwing all of our resources against this and we are seeing progress,” Jackson mentioned, underscoring that this is likely one of the high priorities for the state division as its relationship with India strengthens.
Reducing the visa wait time is a high precedence for secretary of state Tony Blinken, deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia Nancy Jackson advised Indian reporters at a roundtable organised on Tuesday by the state division, together with the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS).
“As I look at the relationship, it strikes me that people-to-people ties between our two nations are really the bedrock of what is one of our most consequential relationships in the world and that’s the US-India relationship. We can’t underscore that enough. So addressing the visa wait times that we’ve been facing is critical not only to maintaining those people-to-people ties, but to expand them,” Jackson mentioned.
FIIDS has been working with the Biden Administration for the previous a number of months on addressing varied points dealing with Indian-Americans, notably the visa wait time.
“It is the number-one priority that we’re facing right now. We are absolutely committed to getting us out of this situation where anyone in India seeking a visa appointment or a visa would have to wait a long time. That is certainly not our ideal,” mentioned deputy assistant secretary of state for Consular Affairs Julie Stufft.
The State Department, she mentioned, has taken a number of steps to scale back the visa wait time. These embody increasingly classes being waived off from visa interviews, sending dozens of officers to India to conduct the interviews, screening of visa purposes by officers on the state division right here within the US, involving officers from its different diplomatic missions within the course of and opening up its embassies and missions in different international locations so far as Thailand and Germany for Indian visa-seekers for an in-person interview.
“For first-time visitor appointments, we’ve cut a year and two months off the wait time already. Now, the second year we take off of that is going to be harder than the first, but we’re going to get there,” she mentioned.
“All non-visitor visa types — students, workers, and anyone who has travelled previously to the United States — have very very low wait times. Our H-1B and F visa (for students) wait times were just as high as the tourist wait times six months ago. We brought down those categories,” Stufft mentioned.
“We brought down the wait for people who don’t need an interview. We made a lot of progress on that. And just because of the sheer number of visitor visa applications, which is our largest category around the world, certainly in India, we still have that one wait time to go after,” she mentioned.
“Also, we’ve waived interviews for anyone who’s been a repeat traveller,” Stufft mentioned.
More could be achieved, she famous. “Because we have interviews waived for a large number of Indian visa applicants, we can have people all over the world doing those cases, not just in India. So right now, today, we have dozens and dozens of officers around the world and here in Washington, right down the street doing Indian visas on behalf of our Mission in India,” the state division official mentioned.
In that means, they’ll focus in India on individuals who want that interview. “And we can let other people concentrate on the people who don’t need the interview. So, someone in China could be doing Indian cases, and those are printed in India and sent back locally. This has been a major help to us,” Stufft mentioned.
“We’ve also opened up other missions, and this is actually unprecedented. We’ve asked other US embassies to take on Indian visa applicants specifically if they choose to travel there. Our biggest place where we’re doing this right now is Bangkok. Thailand is a place where Indian citizens don’t need a visa to travel to. And anyone who even needs a visitor visa appointment can go to Bangkok,” she mentioned.
Observing that it’s not the best scenario for anybody to have to go away their residence nation for an American visa appointment, she mentioned that within the meantime, it is rather helpful. The US Mission in Frankfurt amongst others is permitting individuals who perhaps are within the United States travelling out to go there relatively than come all the way in which again residence, she mentioned, including that this has actually helped people who find themselves urgently attempting to journey on a customer visa.
“We have seen this actually working. In the last few months, Indian citizens have applied to more than a hundred different US embassies overseas, and many of them are travelling from India for that appointment. So this is something people are taking advantage of,” Stufft mentioned.
The US has additionally despatched a number of dozens of workers to India to course of the visa purposes. They are working weekends and in shifts throughout the week, she mentioned. “Because of them being there, we’ve made some really incredible progress,” she mentioned.
Because of those steps, Stufft mentioned the US has issued 36 per cent extra visas than it did earlier than the pandemic in India throughout regular occasions. This is anticipated to go up because the 12 months goes on, she asserted.
“We are throwing all of our resources against this and we are seeing progress,” Jackson mentioned, underscoring that this is likely one of the high priorities for the state division as its relationship with India strengthens.
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