U.S. Embassy in India surpasses goal of processing 1 million non-immigrant visas

US Mission to India surpasses goal of 1M non-immigrant visa applications this year. Ambassador Garcetti hands over 1Mth visa to couple heading to US for son's MIT graduation. Mission has expanded staffing, improved facilities & implemented strategies to increase efficiency.

The U.S. Mission to India on Thursday surpassed its goal to process one million non-immigrant visa applications this year with Ambassador Eric Garcetti personally handing over the one millionth visa to a couple, who will be heading to the United States to attend their son's graduation at MIT.

Dr Ranju Singh, senior consultant, Lady Hardinge College was elated at receiving an email from the U.S. Embassy about hers being the one millionth visa this year. Her husband Puneet Dargan was granted the next visa. The couple will be travelling to the U.S. in May 2024.

Greeting the couple as "Mr and Mrs One million", Ambassador Garcetti enquired about their travel plans to the U.S. and made suggestions about what not to miss in the country as a tourist.

"I couldn't be happier today, happy for India, Indians and the United States. Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and President (Joe) Biden had said lets do a better job in moving faster on the visas and so the Ministry of External Affairs here approved more bodies in places like Hyderabad...more people who can work on these visas, we changed our systems, we worked harder and smarter and we hit a million visa applications processed this year," the ambassador said.

"Our partnership with India is one of the United States' most important bilateral relationships, and in fact one of the most important relationships in the world. The ties between our people are stronger than ever, and we will continue our record-setting volume of visa work in the coming months to give as many Indian applicants as possible the opportunity to travel to the United States and experience the US-India friendship firsthand," he added.

The Mission has already surpassed the total number of cases processed in 2022 and is processing almost 20% more applications than in pre-pandemic 2019.

"We got an email after we had finished our visa interviews that we are supposed to collect our visas, we were told that we were the one millionth... the Ambassador meeting us in person was a great moment for us. We are looking forward to going to the US, we will be there at MIT to celebrate our son's proud day and then explore the country as tourists," Dr. Singh told PTI.