The U.S. State Department announced that its Embassy and consulates in India have issued an all-time record of more than 140,000 student visas between October 2022 and September 2023. Indian students pay out-of-state fees to American universities and this counts as an export from the United States, making education a major export revenue source.
Last month, the U.S. Mission to India reached and surpassed the goal to process one million non-immigrant visa applications in 2023.
The U.S. Embassy and Consulates in India said in a statement that last year over 1.2 million Indians visited the U.S., making it one of the most robust travel relationships in the world.
“Indians now represent over 10 per cent of all visa applicants worldwide, including 20 per cent of all student visa applicants and 65 per cent of all H&L-category (employment) visa applicants. The United States welcomes this growth,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti visited the U.S. mission in the national capital to oversee the “unprecedented demand” for U.S. visitor visas among the Indians.
The U.S. Embassy said that Garcetti was the special guest helping the extra visa applicants on ‘Super Saturday’!
