April 1 :
The US envoy to India, Eric Garcetti, has shed light on the visa issues that Indians encounter by stating that President Joe Biden instructed him to reduce the processing periods for Indian visas. According to Garcetti, who was speaking in an interview with ANI, this was the first time anywhere an ambassador has been instructed to investigate such a matter. According to Garcetti, Congress needs to solve the green card backlog as it is partly a legislative matter. The amount of visas that have been adjudicated has reduced the waiting time by 75%, nevertheless, as he pointed out.
"Congress will have to address this as a legislative problem, and it will have to do so in relation to the quotas for legal immigrants, green cards, and citizenship. That is subject to some limitations. I imagine there are boundaries here as well, just as in any nation. I think it's irritating for Indians because a lot of Indians desire to immigrate to the United States. This is an excellent aspect of our news, incidentally. Among the most popular student visa categories last year, Indian nationals accounted for twice as many applicants as Mexicans.
"India was the source of more than 245,000 student visas last year. First in adoptions and all these other categories that reveal 1.4 billion people, many of whom would love to move to the United States. Thus, it's an advantageous problem to possess. "However, a few things were shifting..." he explained when questioned about the green card backlog and the reasons why Indians make up the majority of those waiting times.
With the same staff and the same amount of visas processed, we were able to cut wait times in half in a year and boost productivity by 60% in Delhi and throughout India. Therefore, once again, that is something that Congress should address. Even though the visa processing time has been cut in half, there is still a 250-day waiting period, which Garcetti was asked about. "Where the 250 is still a long way," Garcetti responded. I find the price to be excessively expensive. The president instructed Eric to reduce the amount of time that visa applicants must wait in India. I don't think any president has ever said that to an ambassador before.
I doubt presidents pay attention to visa processing timeframes, but I'm sure many of our Indian friends are wondering why everything is taking so long. The president was even notified. That 250 is, therefore, a mean estimate. Plus, I believe the average human has been around for less than two hundred days now. "It's challenging with the resources we have," he said.
The US envoy continued by saying, "...We actually are very responsive," after mentioning that India's system is performing admirably. For the president and me, it's a really important matter. But other countries are saying, hold on a second. With a quarter of the student visas and the largest group of H1Bs by far, it's not even close to being proportional to the large number of Indians. According to our system, India is performing admirably. Additionally, I believe that our system is considering ways to enhance itself and even increase the quantity. However, that can only happen if independents, Republicans, and Democrats work together. In order to unite.
According to a press statement issued last November by the US Embassy in India, a record number of Indian students have once again travelled to the US to seek higher education.
The number of Indian students studying in the US reached a record high of 268,923 in the 2022–23 school year, up 35% from the previous year, according to the Open Doors Report (ODR). A little over a quarter of a million international students enrolled in American universities are from India. The embassy announced that the Open Doors Report's release coincides with the start of International Education Week (IEW), a global celebration of the positive effects of foreign exchange and education.
Two additional consulates are being considered for opening, according to Garcetti.One new consulate will be located in Ahmedabad, and the other will be in Bangalore; we have discussed the possibility of opening both of these locations soon. Two, the Indian government's Ministry of External Affairs has been really accommodating and receptive as we work with them to establish more entities in the country. As an example, we recently established the United States Consulate in Hyderabad, which is the most modern, lavish, and aesthetically pleasing consulate in the world. However, only one third of the counters were filled since we did not have enough individuals who were permitted to work here by the Indian government. The next step is to naturally employ them.
