US to upgrade visa network

The US embassy is looking at setting up new consulates and also scaling up the visa processing capacities across centres to meet rising visa demand.

The total number of temporary visas issued by the embassy of the United States of America in the fiscal ending September 2008 was close to 7.5 lakh aginst 4.5 lakhs two years ago, said Peter G Kaestner, minister-counselor for Consular Affairs and Consul General, embassy of the US.

The US embassy aimed to reduce backlog time for visa issue to 14 calender days from six months or more earlier wait required of an average Indian visa applicant to get an appointment for the US visa interview or related processes.

This was cut to 20 working days in the last six months, but the consulate would be working to ensure smoother visa processes for bonafide applicants and reduce time further, said Kaestner.

He warned that the number of malafide or fraud cases was rising and a special investigative cell would be commissioned in all consulates soon. The US had increased manpower all over India, and special investigators who would combat fraud cases in the visa arena.

Most US consulates had doubled up their visa handling capacity. In Kolkata too, the visa section windows would rise from four to nine, while visa section windows in Delhi would rise from 15 to 37.

A $100 million consulate complex would come up in Mumbai in another year or so while a new consulate was due in Hyderabad shortly, said Kaestner. While the Mumbai unit would have 40 windows, the Hyderabad consulate would start with 15 windows for visa processing and other processes.

According to statistics, of the total number of temporary visas processed in the fiscal ending September 2008, most visas were business and tourist class, only 9.3 percent were student visas, 10.7 percent visas for dependants of students and workers, 14 percent for short business trips or temporary work, and the rest for other visits.

The Kolkata US consulate issued nearly 30000 of the total 7.5 lakh temporary visas in the last fiscal. This could rise with the increase in the number of windows to become operational by this year end, said Deborah Millier of the Kolkata US consulate.