Team Blitz India
Shedding light on visa appointments and the waiting time concerning them, the US envoy to India, Eric Garcetti, said that President Joe Biden told him to bring down the waiting time for it in India.
This is the first instance that an ambassador has been asked to look into something like this in any country by the White House.
Garcetti underscored that a part of the green card backlog issue is a legislative problem and said that it is what Congress will have to address. However, he highlighted that the number of visas that have been adjudicated has brought down the waiting time by 75 per cent.
“Last year, over 245,000 student visas came from India. Number one in adoptions, number one in all these categories that show 1.4 billion people, a lot of them would love to come to America”, he said in an interview with an Indian news agency.
On being asked about the green card backlog issue, and why there are mostly Indians who are on the backlog, the ambassador said these were being issued in not just Delhi, but across India.
The numbers had increased 60 per cent in a single year, but the US embassy had brought down wait times by 75 per cent. Garcetti was asked that despite a 75 per cent reduction in the time limit for visas, there is a waiting period of 250 days.
The US embassy in India is pressed for resources to handle the increasing demand for US visas, the envoy said.
“We actually are very responsive. It’s a huge priority for me, for the president,” he added.
