36% more visas processed across India after COVID-19 pandemic: U.S. officials

Efforts are being made to reduce the wait time for non-visitors and students, a U.S. visa official said

India is the main priority for the United States, U.S. visa officials said adding that there has been around 36% in visa processing across the country after the COVID-19 pandemic.

While addressing a presser organised by Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies on February 21, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services in the Bureau of Consular Affairs Julie Stufft said, "India is the number one priority that we are facing right now. We are absolutely committed to getting out of this situation. Anyone in India seeking a visa appointment or visa have to wait for that's not certainly our ideal."

She further stated, "So far this year, we have issued 36% more visas than we did before the COVID-19 pandemic in India. And that is a huge percentage of progress."

She also said that they are doing everything to reduce the wait time. "All the non-visitor time or student-visa have very very low wait times and that's really key. Our H-1B and F student's wait time were just as high almost six months ago and so we brought down the wait time," she added.

The H-1B visa, under the Immigration and Nationality Act, is a non-immigrant visa that allows U.S. companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

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Talking about the India-U.S. relationship, Deputy Assistant Secretary for India Nancy Jackson said that people-to-people is the most important tie between U.S. and India. "As I look at the relationship it strikes me that people-to-people ties between our two nations are really the bedrock of what is one of the most consequential relationships in the world and that is the India-U.S. relationship.