US embassy opens 2.5 lakh new visa slots for Indians
The additional 2.5 lakh visas can be for people visiting the US as tourists, skilled workers, and students
To meet the “surging demand” in India to travel to the USA, the US embassy has now opened an additional 2.5 lakh visa appointments for Indian travellers. These visas can be for people visiting the US as tourists, skilled workers, and students.
In a tweet on X, the US Embassy making this announcement said that new additional slots will help hundreds of thousands of Indian applicants take timely interviews and to facilitate their travel to the US.
Notably, the US mission in India had already surpassed 10 lakh non-immigrant visa applications for the second consecutive year.
1.2 million Indians travelled to US in 2024
More than 1.2 million Indians have travelled to the US till now in 2024, as per records shared by the mission. This marks a 35 per cent increase over the same period in 2023.
US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti had recently said that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden set an ambitious goal to improve and expedite the visa process and he is proud to say that they have delivered on that promise. “Our consular teams at the embassy and four consulates work tirelessly to ensure that we meet the surging demand,” he added.
Also read: US Embassy expects record number of Indian student visa applications in 2024
Record student visas
During student visa season in the summer of 2024, the US mission processed “record” numbers, and all first-time student applicants were able to obtain an appointment at one of their five consular sections around India. The embassy issued more than 1.4 lakh student visas this year, which is more than any other country in the world.
“Taken individually, Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, and Chennai now stand as the top four student visa processing posts in the world. As a result of these surging numbers, Indian students have become the largest group of international graduate students in the United States and make up more than a quarter of the over one million foreign students studying in the United States," according to the US embassy.
The US is one of the top four destinations preferred by Indian students, besides Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.