US Embassy starts 12-day visa programme; Indians fume
Darpan News Desk IANS, 15 Dec, 2022 11:37 AM
New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) Indians in queue for US visas have been left fuming even as the American Embassy in New Delhi started a '12 days of visas' programme to encourage people to apply for H and L visas.
A video clip shared by the Embassy on Tuesday -- the first day of the programme -- said that there was a 17 per cent increase in the H and L visa applications and the waiting time for the same has been reduced.
"That's tens of thousands of workers and families who have been able to reunite or start working in the US," the video clip shared on Twitter stated.
Nevertheless, the announcement left many Indians, who have been facing long delays in obtaining visa interviews to travel to the US, fuming.
"While I love the idea of 12 days, you are not going to win any kudos on visas; So much business and tourism is backlogged due to the long delays in getting appointments. Getting Indian Visas for Americans is now so much easier and faster than having Indians get visas to the US," Gunjan Bagla, a management consultant, tweeted in response to the Embassy announcement.
The wait time for visa appointments in India currently runs into more than 1,000 days.
The White House said last week that the administration is aware of the long delays and is working to respond to the "significant demand of these visa services".
"How long will you guys make us wait? People in D Q after us received their interview letters after 4-5 months... and we are waiting for 10 months for our interview and still there is no clue that when we could get it. You guys just care about F1, H,L,B categories. What about us?" a fuming Kajal Arora wrote to the US embassy on Twitter.
Among the H and L, the H-1B and L-1 are among the most popular non-immigrant work visas in the US. In October this year, the US Embassy in India released over 1,00,000 appointments for H and L visas for workers and their families to cut down the wait time.
The Embassy also informed that in the first nine months of 2022, it had already processed over 1,60,000 H and L visas.
"Appreciate your efforts, but please keep in mind about B1/B2 visas as well. Many of the families, including mine, have to wait until mid 2025 to get an appointment to reunite with their family," wrote Prasanth Balasubramanian, a medical doctor.
The US State Department said in November that the waiting period for B-1/B-2 candidates who need to be interviewed is 999 days in Mumbai, 994 days in Hyderabad, 961 days in Delhi, 948 days in Chennai, and 904 days in Kolkata.
Beginning this month, a presidential panel recommended the administration to consider issuing a memo to the US State Department to reduce visa appointment wait times to a maximum of two to four weeks for countries with heavy backlogs, like India.
Asserting that India is number one priority for Washington, a senior US embassy official had said last month that the processing time for visas is expected to mark a specific decrease by mid-2023.
It was reported in August that Indians who applied for American visas for travel or study purposes would have to wait until 2024 in order to successfully book a visitor visa appointment.
The final stage of the process to get a business or tourist visa to the US is an in-person interview.
Prior to that, an Indian citizen is required to furnish details about the visit's purpose, proof that they can financially support themselves while in the US, work history and educational background, details about relatives who live in the US, etc.
The videos of LPG cylinders, cars and other vehicles floating on streets amid gushing water are going viral on social media. Officials said that rain started to pour the city on Monday evening which continued till Wednesday leaving residents stranded as streets were water clogged bringing traffic to a standstill.
The vessel, worth around Rs 30 crore, was allgedly being used by by Pankaj Mishra, a close aide of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. It was being operated illegally without having any permit from Sukargarh Ghat, Sahebganj, the agency said, adding that the vessel was seized during a search operation conducted on Tuesday.
The accused were identified as Mohd Sahil, 28, Mohd Waseem, 18, Mohd Yusuf, 29, and Ashish Chawla, 43. Deputy Commissioner of Police, South, Benita Mary Jaiker said that the matter came to notice when a PCR call was received on July 18, reporting that a courier package having 80 knives was found dropped in C.R. Park area.
Officials said under a pilot project net metering roof top solar power plant in four mandis are being installed and such solar power plants will be installed in 23 mandis. The minister said a project report should be prepared for all grain and vegetable markets for setting up net monitoring solar power plants so that the people can be provided with affordable electricity.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was released by the Delhi Police almost over six hours after he was detained during his party's march from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhawan, officials said Tuesday. "They have been released," Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Amrutha Gugolth said while responding to a query about the Congress party leaders' detention.
Anmol Rattan Sidhu resigned from his post earlier in the day. In a resignation letter to Chief Minister Mann, Sidhu said he was resigning from the post owing to personal reasons. He was appointed to the post in March this year.
