Aware of long delays in visa appointments in India: What White House said

US Visa: “I can say that the Biden administration is aware of the issues,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

The Joe Biden administration is aware of the delay in visa appointments in India and is working to respond to the "significant demand" for these services, the White House said. This comes as the wait for visa interviews in the US missions crossed 1,000 days, PTI reported.

US Visa: US Embassy in New Delhi has earlier said that the wait time for non-immigrant visa applicants has gone up due to reduced workforce. (Representational)

Non-immigrant visa, visitor visa (B1/B2), student visa (F1/F2), and temporary worker visa (H, L, O, P, Q) appointments with embassies in countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal have extraordinarily long backlogs.

“I can say that the Biden administration is aware of the issues,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“While we have made great strides, as you know, because you cover this very closely, in recovering from the pandemic-related closures and staffing challenges, we are still working to respond to the significant demand of these visa services,” Jean-Pierre added.

“That is something that we will continue to do. We are successfully lowering visa interview wait times, that's around the world, and we've doubled our hiring of US Foreign Service personnel to do this important work. Visa processing is recovering faster than projected, and this year we expect to reach pre-pandemic processing levels,” she further said.

Early this week, a presidential commission recommended president Joe Biden to consider issuing a memo to the State Department to reduce the visa appointment wait times.

The US Embassy in New Delhi earlier said that the wait time for non-immigrant visa applicants has gone up due to reduced workforce and coronavirus-related restrictions in operations since March 2020.

The US State Department last month said that visa processing is rebounding faster than projected and is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels next year.