MUMBAI: The offices of the US Consulate General in India are set to issue one million visas this year. They are quickly approaching the half-million mark of visas already processed this year.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Hugo Rodriguez, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Consular affairs, Washington, who was in Mumbai, spoke of how the consular offices in India were gearing for the upcoming student visa season, as also on how they were on track to achieving the one-million visa mark for all classes of visas put together. “Mission India in the past six months issued nearly two-and-a-half times the number of non-immigrant visas than in the same time period last year. We are processing more visas now than we did in the pre-pandemic 2019,”
We continue to look for ways to try to maximise travel for B1, B2 visas (for tourists and business purposes). For example, we have expanded the use of interview waiver and so many people who previously had a visa in any category are able to send in their passport without having to come in for an interview, and as a result, we are able to get even more people to come in to get their visas,” said John Ballard, consular chief at US Consulate General Mumbai.
