Let us tell you that this pilot program for visa renewal is one of the many measures that the State Department wants to add or continue with the aim of reducing the waiting time for travel to America. This will allow H-1B holders to renew their visas by mailing them to the State Department rather than traveling outside the US and facing indefinite wait times to secure an appointment at a US consular office before returning.
These people will get big relief
“We really need to prove the concept that it works before we expand it to a larger group,” Julie Stuft, deputy assistant secretary for consular affairs, told reporters on Monday. “This is a big change for those Who live here. Earlier they had to leave America.”
Due to the heavy visa backlog, some H-1B workers have adopted workarounds such as traveling to nearby countries with lower backlogs to secure appointments. According to Stuft, the domestic renewal option will help consular offices in those countries as well as India.
Visa appointment time reduced
The average wait time to secure a visa appointment to travel to the US dropped to 130 days last year, down 70 days from fiscal year 2022. The State Department considers the acceptable waiting time to be closer to 90 days.
1.4 lakh Indian students got visa
The US State Department announced that the US Embassy and Consulates in India have issued more than 1 lakh 40 thousand student visas from October 2022 to September 2023. The department said on Tuesday that international students in American colleges and universities contribute up to $38 billion annually to the country’s economy. More than six lakh student visas were issued in a year till September 2023, which is the highest since FY 2017.
India is ahead of China in this matter
During the main student visa season of June-August 2023, consular officers across India issued 95,269 visas in F, M and J categories. This is an increase of 18 percent compared to 2022 during the same time frame. According to data from the Open Doors Report, for the first time since 2009/10, India has overtaken China in the number of international graduate students admitted to the US.
