Skift Take
In what might seem like a much-needed relief to end long visa delays, how efficiently backlogs are cleared remains to be seen.
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The U.S. will open new consulates in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad while India will establish a mission in Seattle and two other locations in the U.S. Currently, India has five consulates in the U.S.: New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta, apart from the embassy in Washington. Visa delays are the single biggest impediment to growth in travel between the two countries. The two new consulates could help expedite the Indian visa application process, which the U.S. State Department now considers a "top priority."
Early this month, top U.S. lawmakers urged the Biden administration to address the visa wait time issue. The U.S. Consulate’s all-hands-on-deck approach — such as bringing processing staff in on weekends, making embassies available to Indian nationals in other countries and hiring more staff — has reduced the wait times in the country by 50 percent, from an average of 669 days in mid-March to 337 days in early April, according to the U.S. Travel Association.