US To Open Interview Schedule For Indian Students In June Says John Ballard, US Consular Chief

The United States Mission in India will open up student visa interview slots for Indian Students by next month said John Ballard, Consular Chief, U.S. Consulate General, Mumbai. The news has spread happiness to the Indian students who wish to study abroad and make a successful career. Speaking at a media roundtable on US Mission to India’s consular operations, John Ballard said “We will be officially opening up most of our study visa appointments from June 1 till the middle of July. In light of more demands.”

The US consular will open up more slots from mid-July through August so that every Indian student has an opportunity to appear for the interviews. The decision comes in the background when US Consul General in Mumbai Mike Hankey stated that their country is aiming to increase visa interview appointments for Indian students by 30%. It is expected that this fiscal year the US Mission in India will observe the highest number of students from India between June-August for the Fall intake.

In the fiscal year 2022, the US Consular issued 1,25,000 study visas to the Indian students. Hugo Rodriguez, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS), Bureau of Consular Affairs, US said “Mission India issued in the last 6 months nearly two and a half times the number of non-immigrant visas than in the same period last year. We are processing more visas now than we did in 2019 before the pandemic hit.”

This year, it is expected that Indian Students can receive over a million visas by the US. As stated the by Consular Chief, the Mission has already witnessed almost 500,000 visas from India. Speaking on the volume of application, students visas remains ahead followed by non-immigrant visas for work, business, and tourism purposes such as H1B, B1, and B2 visas. In the last few year, fraudulent applications has remained a cause of concern for the authorities especially in countries such as Canada, Germany, and Australia, the US is upping the ante to deal with the same.

Sharing his views on the fraudulent application, Hugo Rodriguez said there team is actively looking at all documents so if that fraudulent documents holders remains ineligible for a visa for the rest of their life. Further he said, that the application process is free and accessible hence students should avoid any agents.