India: Getting Visa to Us to Be Made Easier

NEW DELHI, Jan 21 (NNN-UNI) -- In the wake of US President Barack Obama's initiative to boost travel and tourism in his country, the US Embassy’s Consular Team here has made streamlining the visa application process its priority.

"We want to make it easier for travellers to apply for a visa to visit the United States," Minister-Counselor for Consular Affairs James Herman said here today.

He said over the last five years, the US Embassy in New Delhi increased staffing by over 60 per cent and opened two new consulates in Hyderabad (in 2009) and Mumbai (in 2011).

Some 97 per cent of visas are processed within 24 hours, and waiting time period for visa appointments are currently ten days or less.

In 2011, close to 700,000 visa applications across the nation were processed.

"Indians represent the highest volume of work visa travellers to the United States and the second highest number of foreign students in the United States," said Mr Herman. Over 68,000 such visas are processed by Consular Team India alone.

"We continue to support the people-to-people ties which define the growing partnership between our nations. Each year we reach out to more students, beyond the already tremendous number of 104,000 currently studying, to help them achieve their educational goals. We work closely with the business community to meet their needs, with hundreds of companies' members of our Business Executive Programme," the Counsellor said.

President Obama has issued an Executive Order to make it easier for foreign travellers to visit the United States. His order calls for a national strategy to make the United States the top travel and tourism destination.

He has directed agencies throughout the US Government to design a programme to make it easier for tourists to visit the United States --NNN-UNI