The United States has cancelled over 2,000 visa applications in India, its embassy announced on Wednesday.
This comes amid strict immigration and visa policy taken up by the Donald Trump administration since the new US President took office more than two months ago.
Indians are one of the most prominent demographics who enter the United States for all kinds of activities, be it work, tourism, or as students.
Why did the US cancel 2000 visa appointments in India?
The current crackdown by the US Embassy in India happened due to fraud-related activities. The embassy detected major violations in the appointment system by “bad actors” or bots and suspended their accounts.
“Consular Team India is cancelling about 2,000 visa appointments made by bots. We have zero tolerance for agents and fixers that violate our scheduling policies,” the US Embassy wrote in a post on X.
“Effective immediately, we are cancelling these appointments and suspending the associated accounts’ scheduling privileges,” the post added.
US visa applications in India have been facing significant backlogs anyway, especially among the B1 and B2 applicants. These visas are meant for business and tourism. The applicants back in 2022-23 had to wait for anywhere between 800 to 1,000 days.
To tackle such long waiting times, the US opened visa appointments for Indian applicants in Germany’s Frankfurt and the Thai capital, Bangkok.
The government of India has repeatedly raised concerns about the waiting time with Washington. Back in 2022, external affairs minister S Jaishankar raised concerns about the visa delays with the then-US secretary of state Antony Blinken. The Biden administration attributed the backlog to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jaishankar, during his recent January visit to Washington for Donald Trump’s inauguration, raised the issue again with Blinken’s successor Marco Rubio.
Apart from the delays, the overall approval rate has also declined, particularly affecting students. With the fraud detection in visa applications, it might have another negative impact on those seeking to go to the US for any purpose.
Article source: hindustantimes.com
