PTI

Washington, January 18

The US is “putting every ounce of its energy” to get rid of the lengthy visa wait time in India, together with sending a cadre of consular officers to India and opening up its different abroad embassies in as far-off as Germany and Thailand for Indian visa candidates, a senior US visa officer has stated.

“We’re putting every ounce of our energy towards eliminating these (visa) wait times in India,” Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services, Julie Stufft, advised PTI in an interview.

Normalisation of visa operations all over the world proper now could be a high precedence, she stated.

“We’re sending a cadre of consular officers to help our staff in our embassy and consulates in India. They’re working shifts during the day. They’re working weekends, mainly to do visitor visa interviews, which of course are now the only remaining visa type that we have long wait times for,” she stated.

The US has one of many largest visa operations on the earth. “We have many, many different visa types that we need to serve in India.” Prominent amongst them are visas for college students, tech employees, immigrants who’re transferring completely to the US, and seafaring crew members.

The US has labored by means of all of those except for the most important class – visa for guests who want an interview.

Stufft stated in working by means of these visa sorts this yr, the US has made quite a lot of progress. The wait time for an interview for work visas – corresponding to H-1B and L1 visas — has gone down from 18 months to about 60 days.

India broke the report for many scholar visas final yr and it might accomplish that this yr once more, she stated, including that India is now quantity two on the earth when it comes to worldwide college students coming to the United States.

“We are really, we’re putting all of our effort now focusing on this visa for visitors and those, in particular, if you don’t need an interview, you don’t need to wait very long at all for a visa renewal. And that’s also one part of our strategy as well,” she stated.