H-1B stamping, interview waivers, and everything else the US is doing to cut your visa wait
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This week, US visa officials reiterated that India is the country’s top priority as visa wait times slowly begin to ease.
“India is the number one priority that we are facing right now,” Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services in the Bureau of Consular Affairs Julie Stufft stated in her address on Tuesday to a media interaction organized by the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies. We are completely committed to getting out of this situation. That certainly is not our ideal situation for anyone in India seeking a visa appointment or visa waiting period.”
“We have issued 36% more visas this year than we did before the COVID pandemic in India,” she added. And that is a huge percentage of progress.”
The United States is reducing visa wait times in the following ways:
- Beginning in the fall, the United States will begin a domestic visa stamping program for H-1 and L-1 visa renewals within the country visa. ” We will be able to put out a call for applications for the first time this fall. The pilot, which will take place this summer, will be for workers. Therefore, that would be H’s, L’s, and I’s,” the official continued.
- The department was additionally growing its interview waiver process for a few temporary workers students, and academic exchange visitors. ” All the non-visitor time or student visas have very short wait times, which is very important. “We reduced the wait time because the wait times for our H-1B and F students were the same as they were almost six months ago,” she added.
- A US visa is available to Indian applicants who are traveling abroad on business. Sufft stated, “We’ve also opened up other missions, and this is unprecedented,” citing Thailand and Germany as examples. We’ve asked other US embassies to help India visa applicants who want to travel there.”
- On January 21, the US Mission in India launched the first in a series of special Saturday interview days. To reduce wait times for first-time visa applicants. On Saturday, consular operations were opened at the US Embassy in New Delhi. As well as the Consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad for applicants who require in-person visa interviews.
[U.S. State Department to Launch Visa Renewal Pilot Program]
Wait Times
- According to a statement that was released by the US Embassy in India. The US Mission will continue to open additional slots for appointments that are scheduled to take place on specific Saturdays. Also, these additional interview days are among the measures that have been taken to address the backlog in visa processing caused by COVID-19.
- For applicants with prior US visas, the US Department of State has implemented remote processing of interview waiver cases. The statement says that between January and March, dozens of temporary consular officers from Washington and other embassies will come to India to increase processing capacity.
