The US consulates have processed 1.22 lakh pupil visa functions to this point this yr– an all-time document– while additionally making India the highest receiver of pupil visas, US Consul Normal Mike Hankey stated on Wednesday.
“This yr we’ve processed 1.22 lakh pupil visa functions making India the primary recipient of pupil visas. Now we have prioritised three classes of visas– college students, humanitarian medical visas and enterprise visas,” Hankey stated, including that the standard of Indian college students in US universities was “extremely excessive” and the general variety of college students within the US presently stands at near 2 lakh.
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The consul common, who’s in India for an official journey, stated the embassy has sped up processing of visa functions for the Indian college students by dedicating additional sources and committing extra individuals to workers the centres to make sure that the workers energy now reaches numbers larger than these previous to the pandemic.
Hankey stated that the processing was being distributed by way of back-office dealing with throughout a number of places of work.
“We’re working as a worldwide workforce. Now we have used modern technological options to electronically redistribute non-immigrant visa workloads from abroad posts with excessive visa appointment wait occasions to different posts with extra capability,” he stated.
The US diplomat is in Goa exploring potential to broaden enterprise and cultural ties between businessmen in Goa and US firms. He additionally held a collection of conferences with enterprise leaders, authorities officers, politicians and NGOs.
He stated that the US consulate has additionally consciously labored to get rid of the backlog granting journey paperwork and crew visas for these engaged on both service provider ships or cruise vessels, by way of a particular push in that regard.
Earlier in November, the US State Division stated it was anticipating visa processing to succeed in pre-pandemic ranges within the first half of 2023.
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“The Division of State is efficiently decreasing visa interview wait occasions worldwide. Now we have doubled our hiring of US overseas service personnel to do that essential work, visa processing is rebounding sooner than projected, and in fiscal yr (FY) 2023, we count on to succeed in pre-pandemic visa processing ranges,” the US State Division stated in November.