The window for Indians to apply for the student visa to USA will open soon. Needless to say, India has the second highest number of students in the United States. While thousands of Indian students are scouring the internet for information on US universities’ admission process, tuition fees, accommodation, etc., the US Embassy in India is up with certain changes to the US student visa policy for the 2022 Fall season. Students seeking F1 and M1 visas to USA this Fall season need to be aware of the changes.
The US Embassy in India has implemented changes in the student visa application process because of two major problems that occurred last year. After the initial shutdown of its offices in India during the pandemic, the US Embassy released tens of thousands of visa slots in a phased manner starting June 2021. A huge number of Indian students seeking F1 and M1 visas to USA overwhelmed the US Embassy website to book slots for visa appointments – which caused an outage of the system. Over one lakh Indians were interviewed for more than 62,000 student visas issued for the 2021 fall season. Expecting more applications this year than 2021, the US Embassy has updated the visa policy to keep the system safe against a possible crash.
Unlike the previous years, the US Embassy has not announced a timeline for US student visa applications from India this year, in order to avoid an overload on the system. Students are required to visit the embassy website and check for interview dates (not slots) once they receive their admission documents from US universities or colleges.
In addition to the above, the US Embassy in India has addressed a bigger concern through the changes done in the policy and the system this year. The concern was the booking of slots by those who were refused a student visa to USA earlier. They appeared for visa interviews for a second or third time, wasting opportunities for genuine and first-time applicants. The system has now been upgraded to give priority to genuine students. The changes in the system and the process will help the embassy deal with a 15-20% increase in the number of Indians seeking student visas to USA.
USA’s visa interview waiver for Indian students and their parents
Many Indians studying in the US have benefited from the visa interview wavier scheme that the US government introduced last year. Using the visa waiver drop box scheme, they can travel to India from USA and visit their families back home. Slots are currently available for them. Or, their parents with expired B1/B2 visas can use the waiver facility for renewing the visa through a drop box appointment so that they can travel to the US. The US’ visa waiver program does away with in-person interviews for those who have had a US visa and have never been rejected.
Reportedly, the US consular facilities will be completely normalized in India by 2023, and the process of issuing B1-B2 visas will be resumed in September 2022 so that parents can accompany their children to US universities or colleges.
Travel Beats, a leading community portal for Indians in America, reports on US visas and immigration. Travel Beats is a subsidiary of Indian Eagle Travel, A US-based trusted air-ticketing partner of Indians, NRIs, OCI cardholders, and American citizens. Indian Eagle has discounted airfare deals for students traveling to India and back USA.
