Taking measures to facilitate issuance of business visas in India, says the US

Amid concerns over growing wait time for Indian visa applicants, the US on Tuesday said there has been progress in issuance of business visas in India, and it is taking several steps in the direction. Business visas from India to US are often required by executives from the IT services, technology and startups sectors. A long wait time could affect companies who need executives to travel between India and the US frequently.

"We are doubling the number of direct hires, we have to facilitate the issuance of visas here at the embassy and we are also working to bring on diplomatic spouses to also work in the process in the areas of visas... We have already made progress and are issuing more visas than we ever did before," Arun Venkataraman, US assistant secretary of commerce for global markets told reporters.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had discussed the issue of long delays in issuance of business visas with the US and requested it to speed up the process during his visit to the US in the Trade Policy Forum meeting last week.

Venkataraman explained that there were serious challenges with regard to issuance of visas which was largely due to the covid-19 related disruptions.

"As you can imagine, during the pandemic, we had to significantly reduce our operations and we are unable to issue visas in that context. I am pleased to say that we have really rebounded from that situation, we have taken a number of concrete steps to facilitate the issuance of visa,” he added.