Latest News

US Government Aware of Long Delays in Visa Appointments in India, says White House

Published

on

The Biden Administration is aware of the lengthy delays and is making efforts to address the “high demand of these visa services” as the wait time for visa appointments in India approaches 1000 days, according to a statement from the White House on December 8.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre informed reporters at her daily press conference, “I can state that the Biden administration is aware of the difficulties.”

She was responding to a query regarding the agonizingly lengthy visa appointment wait, which currently exceeds 1,000 days, at the US missions in India.

According to Travel. State official website, the wait time for Interview Required Visitors (B1/B2) is currently 999 days.

“While we have made great progress in recovering from the staffing issues and closures caused by the pandemic, as you know because you follow this very carefully, we are still trying to meet the high demand for these visa services”, declared Jean-Pierre.

We are successfully reducing visa interview wait times around the world, and we’ve doubled our hiring of US Foreign Service personnel to do this important work. Visa processing is recovering faster than projected, and this year we expect to reach pre-pandemic processing levels, so that is something that we will continue to do “She added more.

A presidential commission suggested early this week that President Joe Biden take into account issuing a directive to the State Department to lower the wait times for visa appointments for nations like India with severe backlogs to a maximum of two to four weeks.

The wait times for appointments for non-immigrant visas, visitor visas (B1/B2), student visas (F1/F2), and temporary worker visas (H, L, O, P, Q) at embassies in a few Pacific Islands and Asian nations, such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, are incredibly long.

In the case of India, it has been close to 1,000 days, causing hardship for families of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) both domestically and overseas, as well as significant inconveniences for students, businesses, and tourists.

Speaking about other nations, Beijing has a 2-day wait period for Interview Required Visitors (B1/B2) whereas Shanghai has a 30-day wait time. In Pakistan’s Karachi, the wait for a visa appointment is 381 days. In Dhaka, the wait period is 294 days.

The President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders made a number of recommendations to the White House during its meeting this week to shorten the growing wait times for visa appointments at US embassies around the world, particularly in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and other nations.

Ajay Jain Bhaturia, a prominent member of the Indian American community, inspired the presidential commission to recommend that Biden consider sending a memo to the State Department requesting that the wait times for visa appointments be cut to a maximum of 2-4 weeks for nations with significant backlogs, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India.

It advised the State Department to take all required actions to hasten visa processing in foreign embassies and shorten the wait times for visa appointments for India and other affected embassies to no more than 2-4 weeks.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending

Exit mobile version