The United States Embassy in India has released the first batch of student visa appointments in India for the upcoming September 2024 intake.
The initiative emphasizes the US’ commitment to bringing a larger number of Indian students and fostering educational exchange, VisaGuide.World reports.
It’s almost Student Visa Season! The first tranche of student visa appointments for interviews in late May has been released. In the coming weeks we’ll release additional appointment tranches for June, July, and August.
Recently, the US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, highlighted the commitment of the US to reduce visa processing times for students from India.
According to Garcetti, US President Joe Biden instructed him to expedite the visa process for students of India, emphasizing the high importance of this issue.
The Ambassador to India thinks that it’s the first time in American history that a President has told an ambassador to get those visa waiting times down.
US Granted 140,000 Student Visas for Indian Nationals in 2023
Indian students have become the most significant number of foreign students in the US, accounting for 25 percent of international students pursuing their studies in the US.
Last year, a total of 140,000 visas were issued to Indian nationals by the US authorities, thus outnumbering other countries and marking a new record for the third year in a row.
In 2023, the US State Department received 698,773 student visa (F1) applications. Of them, authorities in the US granted 445,418 student visas, while 253,355 applications were denied, marking a new record of student visa denials.
US State Department’s statistics show that the number of refused visas last year was higher compared to previous years.
According to a report from the Cato Institute, in 2015, in spite of receiving a higher number of applications, the US denied fewer visas compared to 2023.
It now appears that the higher denial rates, which shot up in 2016, may have dissuaded some applicants from applying, and the absolute number of total student visa applicants has declined, and student visa issuances have declined 31 percent from 2015 to 2023.
Through a statement, the embassy said that streamlined processing of employment visas is among the top priorities of the US consular team. In order to provide more efficient and convenient services, authorities in the US have opened a new $340 million facility in Hyderabad in March 2023.