It has not been a practical option to obtain an India visa in a variety of categories, according to lawyers and employers. Wait times to get an appointment for a visa interview can exceed a year or more, according to recent research through the National Foundation. for American politics. As a result, professionals, families, and businesses were left with few suitable options.
“Getting an Indian visa stamp is still exceptionally complicated right now,” according to Kevin Miner, a spouse of Frapassmen. “The wait times you see for interviews are the same at all positions in India. You still want an appointment to stop by the Application Support Center to submit your visa renewal documents, and lately they can’t be obtained at all. One year away
At the U. S. Consulate. In the U. S. Department of Chennai, the existing wait time for visa interview appointments (as of October 4, 2022) is 780 calendar days for guest visas, 29 calendar days for student/exchange guest visas, and 415 calendar days for all other nonimmigrant visas. Wait times for interview appointments are at U. S. consulates. U. S. in Hyderabad and Kolkata.
In Mumbai, the existing wait time for visa interview appointments is 825 calendar days for guest visas, 430 calendar days for student/exchange guest visas, but has decreased from 392 calendar days for all nonimmigrant visas on September 28, 2022 to 31 calendar days. days. from October 4, 2022, due to the opening of new slots. (See below).
“In practice, this means that getting a visa in India has not been a practical option,” Miner said by email. “Some Indian citizens have sought an appointment at a U. S. consulate. The U. S. is in another country that will process them, but the features are limited as Indian citizens require a guest visa to enter the maximum other countries.
“We’ve noticed some good fortune in getting appointments at the U. S. Consulate. U. S. Consulate in Oman, as well as at the U. S. ConsulateThere is a U. S. presence in Malaysia, but that changes frequently. Indian citizens who are in the United States regularly do not do so if they want a visa, which in fact disrupts business and causes a lot of misery for families. Leaving the United States to make a stopover at the home of a sick relative or some other relative in India would possibly mean not being able to return to the United States for more than a year if the individual applies for a visa. This is a scenario that you want a solution.
To better understand the impact of visa issues on businesses and their employees, I interviewed Dear Whee Sim, vice president of global skills acquisition and mobility at Micron Technology, one of the leading U. S. semiconductor companies. The U. S. Department of Homeland, who responded in writing.
“Visa wait times are having a significant effect on our business,” according to Dear Whee Sim. “First of all, many of our workers who need a visa decide not to travel to make a stopover at their families’ homes. These workers have not noticed their families for years. Many family circle milestones have been missed, adding joyful events like weddings and dark moments like deaths. They can’t make a stop at a grandparent’s house. They don’t have time to travel home to help during family circle emergencies. I hear it all the time and other people ask me what can we do to solve this problem?Your inability to travel has an effect on your well-being, and that’s vital to Micron.
“Secondly, those who leave and return to India cannot return as they can only get an appointment for a visa in months (even until 2023). As a company, we want to look at various options. Does the worker have enough free time to close the gap?Can we move the worker’s employment to our Indian entity if his role helps the agreement?If your role doesn’t help that deal, it’s a massive disruption of our U. S. operations. We have to put the worker on leave until the visa is obtained.
The State Department is under pressure to resolve the issue. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken asked about visa wait times following his September 27, 2022 meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
At a Facebook Live event (September 29, 2022), Minister Counsellor for Consular Affairs Don Heflin, who heads visa operations for the five posts in India, said he expects wait times for H and L visas to be minimized after U. S. consulates open. There are around 100,000 appointments in the US in India around 100,000 appointments by 2023 in the H and L categories in the first two to three weeks of October 2022. He said the project is “addressing” wait times for mailboxes H and L. He recommends that other people check appointments every other time for 3 hours, but no more than that to avoid being blocked. He said staffing levels at U. S. consulates are expected to be expected to be at the same time. The U. S. government in India will return to pre-Covid levels until next summer, which he said deserves wait times.
Reacting to a request for visa delays in India, a State Department official responded in the background:
“We are reducing wait times for appointments across all visa categories as temporarily as possible around the world. In fact, visa processing is recovering faster than expected, after an almost complete shutdown and the freezing of resources due to the pandemic.
“This summer, Mission India issued more visas than in any previous summer: 82,000 visas from June to August.
“Additionally, in fiscal year 2022, the project is on track to surpass the FY 2019 award for H-1B and L visas.
“In India, in particular, appointment solicitation is superior across all visa categories and wait times may be long for maximum regime appointments for non-immigrant visas due to staff downsizing and pandemic-related disruptions to our operations since March 2020. We note that cases that do not require an in-person interview continue more quickly, but are not reflected in published wait times.
“To develop visa processing, in 2021 we coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to allow the extension of the government interview waiver (IW) until the end of 2022, keeping national security as our priority. This expansion has allowed consular officers to forgo in-person interviews for a number of visa categories, adding transient workers and for some university scholars and visitors.
“In addition, applicants who renew nonimmigrant visas in the same classification within 48 months of the expiration of the previous visa may also be eligible for IW.
“This IW government has already reduced waiting times at many embassies and consulates. We estimate that 30% of international nonimmigrant visa applicants can gain advantages from IW, freeing up in-person interview appointments for other applicants.
“We estimate that more than 26,000 Indians have benefited from the expansion of IW government to date. “
The State Department says it doubled the consular hiring of direct rental in the U. S. In fiscal year 2022 compared to fiscal year 2021, it trained new workers for consular adjudicator positionsArray and expanded the hiring of eligible family circle members to fill consular and U. S. positions. .
Companies like Micron Technology remain concerned about the effect of visa issues on workers. Dear Whee Sim: “It’s for the inside skill, the workers who have been with us for at least a year that we want to tap into to fill a skills gap in the United States. We move them for short-term employment (to fill a gap), and we can even get the visa appointment until 2023. We had a move as his visa appointment was for October 2023 for a three-month move in late 2022. We know we have the option to request emergency appointments, but the maximum is moved away
“We are looking to stamp a third country because the world is still affected by Covid,” Sim said. it leaves us absolutely at the mercy of the U. S. consulates in India. “