US visa application to go paperless

The American visa application process will go paperless from February 1, 2010. The United States consulate on Thursday announced that visa seekers would have to go online to fill in an e-application, take a print out of a one-page confirmation with a barcode and then appear for a personal interview on a designated date.

The American visa application process will go paperless from February 1, 2010.

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The United States consulate on Thursday announced that visa seekers would have to go online to fill in an e-application, take a print out of a one-page confirmation with a barcode and then appear for a personal interview on a designated date.

The paperless visa process will cut down time and hassle for the applicants and make it easier for the consular staff to manage the applications, said Consular Section Chief, David Tyler.

Explaining the ‘smart application’ format, information officer at the consulate, Robin Remeika, said that applicants would have to answer a few questions online depending on the category of visa applied for.

The Mumbai US consulate will move out of Lincoln House in Breach Candy to a building in Bandra-Kurla Complex next year. The new building, which will also house the American Centre and library (currently situated at New Marine Lines, Churchgate) will be completed by summer.

Tyler added that the number of Indian students enrolled in US universities continued to be the highest among other countries for the eighth consecutive year. The number of Indian students rose by nine per cent, from 95,563 in 2007-2008 to 103,260 during 2008-09. China and Korea have the second and third largest students studying in the US, he added.

There was a 10 to 12 per cent drop in number of US visa applicants worldwide last year as part of the economic downturn, but the number has bounced back, he added.

Dismissing concerns about the controversy surrounding the over four-year jail term handed to Vikram Buddhi, an Indian PhD student at the Purdue University, for his alleged anti-Bush remarks on a website, Remeika said, “This is only one out of one lakh samples of positive student experience”.