The United States has launched a multi-pronged initiative, together with scheduling particular visa interviews on Saturdays and deploying dozens of momentary staffers, to handle the backlog in visa processing because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first in a collection of particular Saturday interview days, half of a bigger effort to scale back wait instances for first-time visa candidates, was organised on January 21 by the US embassy in New Delhi and the consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

These interview days are for candidates who require in-person visa interviews. “In the coming months, the mission will continue to open additional slots for appointments to take place on select Saturdays,” the US embassy stated in an announcement.

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The US division of state has already carried out distant processing of interview waiver circumstances for candidates with earlier US visas. Such candidates not have to seem for in-person interviews.

“Between January and March 2023, dozens of temporary consular officers from Washington and other embassies will arrive in India to increase processing capacity,” the assertion stated.

The division of state can also be rising the variety of consular officers completely assigned to the embassy and consulates in India.

The US mission additionally launched greater than 250,000 extra B1 and B2 visa appointments. The consulate in Mumbai prolonged its weekday working hours to create space for added appointments.

By the summer season, the US mission might be at “full staffing, and we expect to be processing visas at levels from prior to the Covid-19 pandemic”, the assertion added.

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The US is initially centered on pupil visas whereas addressing the backlog. After issuing greater than 82,000 visas to Indian college students in 2022, the main target shifted to decreasing the wait instances for non-immigrant work visas such because the H and L classes, together with the coveted H-1B visas, B-1 enterprise visa, B-2 tourism visa, and visas for crews of transport firms and airways.

The US expects functions for every type of visas in India to extend to about 100,000 a month – or about 1.2 million yearly – in 2023, making India the second largest nation for visa operations after China.

The assertion stated the pandemic resulted in “profound reductions” within the division of state’s visa processing capability. As journey restrictions had been lifted, the US mission in India dealt with greater than 800,000 non-immigrant visas in 2022, together with pupil and employment visas. “In every other visa category, interview wait times in India are at pre-pandemic levels or lower,” the assertion stated.