Blanket L visas only at Chennai US Consulate

CHENNAI: The US Consulate General here will become the sole “blanket L category” visa acceptance and processing centre in the country starting December 1, according to Nicholas Manring, Chief of Consular Services at Chennai. Addressing a press meet on Tuesday, Manring said that this category of visa is usually issued to professionals and executives transferring within their company. From December onwards, companies throughout the country have to send their “blanket L category” visa applications to Chennai for interviews. However, the change would not affect “individual” L1 category applicants, whose papers would be processed in all consular sections in the country. He said the decision was due to the fact that the most of the applications in the blanket L category were already being processed in Chennai and the section has developed expertise necessary for the work. On a question as to how over 67,000 H1B visas were issued when the US Congress had put a cap of 65,000 last year, he said that the rule does not apply to some categories, such as “renewals”, and the figure might be inclusive of these.