The time spent by visa applicants at the United States Consulate-General here on the day of their interview has been reduced to less than an hour, according to US consular officials.
“We have made the experience of a visa applicant as comfortable as possible and made the process efficient,” Bryan Dalton, chief of the consular section here, told reporters on Thursday. By introducing a new, efficient queue system, it had been ensured that applicants with an appointment got in and out of the premises within one hour. On an average, the process took 37 minutes, he said.
There was no need for people to queue up before the consulate for hours and it was enough if they came 15 minutes before the time of their appointment.
The Consulate-General in Chennai issued as many as 1,42,565 non-immigrant visas in 2010, the most among the five consular sections in India. The five consular sections of the US in India adjudicated more than 6,00,000 non-immigrant visas last year, he said.
At present, more than 1,03,000 Indian students are studying in the US universities, he said, the second highest group of overseas students after those from China.
There was no perceptible slowdown in the issue of H-1B visas for Indians, and the country accounted for 65 per cent of H-1B visas issued by the US worldwide, Mr. Dalton said.