‘Let’s prove haters wrong’: Garcetti spotlights role visas play in India-US ties
Garcetti said the US embassy issued over 1 million non-immigrant visas for the second year in a row in 2024 and over 5 million Indians currently hold a US visa
NEW DELHI: Outgoing American ambassador Eric Garcetti on Monday highlighted the importance of visas and people-to-people contacts in strengthening India-US ties at a time when President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is expected to bring in stricter immigration policies.

Garcetti, a political appointee of US President Joe Biden who is set to step down soon, made the remarks while delivering the last of four public lectures on different aspects of India-US ties. While he made no reference to the incoming Trump administration, he spoke about proving “haters wrong” and pointed to greater economic and educational exchanges making both countries stronger.
He noted that the US issued more than one million non-immigrant visas to Indians for the second year in a row in 2024, and that wait times for all visa types, except first-time visitor visas, had been eliminated. He also described the four-million-strong Indian diaspora in the US as the “greatest secret weapon” in the relationship and said they have fuelled connections between the two sides.
“We never know what the future holds, but I’ll say this to my fellow Americans – the more ties that we have to more Indians and the more ways we can find to grow our economic and educational exchanges, the stronger America and India will both be,” he said a week ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
“Let’s prove any haters wrong, the way we always have, by meeting instead of tweeting, by investing instead of protesting, by connecting instead of objecting, and by bringing people together, acknowledging in this day and age there will always be some divisive voices,” he said.
Concerns have grown in India about potential changes to immigration policies by the incoming Trump administration, especially for the H-1B visa programme that brings skilled foreign workers to the US but has faced criticism for undercutting American workers. Indians dominate the programme, receiving more than 70% of all H-1B visas.
Trump, who was once a critic of the H-1B programme, has now said that he backs it, while billionaire Elon Musk too has defended it.
In 2024, India became the top sender of international students to the US for the first time since the 2008-09 academic year, with more than 331,000 students studying in American institutions. India was also the largest sender of international graduate students to the US for the second year, with numbers increasing by 19% to reach almost 200,000 students.
A Pew Research report from last September showed immigration to the US rose by 1.6 million in 2023, the largest increase in more than two decades. Indians were the second-largest immigrant group in the US, after Mexicans.
However, Garcetti pointed out that both Americans and Indians have invested in the relationship and overwhelmingly want ties to deepen. “The truth is, as I said, Americans love Indians and Indians love Americans,” he said.
“In a world that too often cedes space to the forces that seek to divide us both internally and internationally, let us be a voice, as we have been, to care for each other across the things that too often separate us, to care across geography and religion, language and income, identity and so much more,” he added.
Garcetti also highlighted the steps taken by the US to improve visa services for Indians, including the streamlining of visa processing to keep up with incredible demand, hiring a record number of consular officers and using AI to enhance the system.
“Since becoming ambassador, we’ve increased our visas by more than 60%, eliminated wait times for all visa types except for first-time visitor visas, where the wait time is down 75% from our peak,” he said. “For a second year in a row, we issued more than one million non-immigrant visas, including a record number of visitor visas. In fact, more than five million Indians currently hold a US visa.”
India is now the number one source of overseas adoptions for Americans, and Indian students and Indian American immigrants are “helping run our world’s most important universities, our companies, our research entities, they’re providing innovation, a record strong tax base”, Garcetti said.
“They filled needs from rural medicine that can’t be met, to small business operations that we have trouble finding employees for. This makes America, in my opinion, a better and a stronger country,” he said.