US envoy Eric Garcetti joins consular team to interview visa applicants

New Delhi [India], March 11 (ANI): US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti on Monday joined the Embassy’s consular team to interview over 1,000 visitor visa applicants, according to a press release from the US Embassy.

The US Embassy in New Delhi had the first of its four “Super Saturday” visa processing events, which were planned for 2024 and the US envoy came to assist the embassy team.

Moreover, the consulate in Mumbai also opened its doors on March 9 for special visa processing hours.

Ambassador Garcetti said, “the foundation of our US-India partnership is the network of relationships that individuals form when they work, travel, and study in the United States.”

“The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi opened its doors on Saturday, March 9, 2024, to interview over 1,000 visitor visa applicants. Ambassador Garcetti joined the Embassy team to support the surge and assist in the fingerprint verification process,” the US Embassy said in a release.

US envoy Garcetti said, “We’re doing everything we can to facilitate the visa process and support critical people-to-people connections.”

He further stressed that the US Mission in India has increased staffing and harnessed technological innovations to meet the unprecedented demand and process more visas than ever before.

Earlier in 2023, the US Embassy and Consulates in India processed a record-smashing 1.4 million US visas.

“Demand across all visa classes was unprecedented, with a 60 per cent increase in applications compared to 2022,” the release stated.

Notably, Indians now represent one out of every 10 US visa applicants around the world.

Moreover, process improvements and investments in staffing have brought the appointment wait time for visitor visas down from an average of 1,000 days to only 250 days around the country, with minimal wait time in all categories.