USA lifts Travel-ban for India, visa appointments to be scheduled from November 1

The United States of America (USA) federal government has decided to highly prioritize US student visas while lifting the travel restrictions on China, India and part of Europe from November 8, 2021 and start the appointments from the beginning of November 2021. Initially in 2020, the US government imposed travel restrictions for international students to stop the spread of COVID-19. Since the country is forecasting a rapid increase in the applications for US universities with lifting of travel curbs for all the vaccinated travellers, hence, the student visas are treated with top priority.

Check: USA Student Visa Requirements and Processing Time

During an interaction with the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the US Consul General to Kolkata, Melinda Pavek said that the appointments for students will be available from November 1, 2021. The US government has already issued over 62,000 student visa for Indian students in 2021. As the US presidential proclamation is coming to an end on November 8, all types of visa applications including work, entrepreneurship, business or education will become eligible, and a heavy surge of visa applications is expected, she added.

In accordance with the proclamation of President Biden, from November 8 onwards, visa applications of individuals willing to study in USA, who were present physically in a covid-affected nation are being processed. Applicants whose visa applications were specifically rejected for the same reason can contact to the embassy or consulate where they applied for reconsideration. However, all the rejected applicants might not be considered at once for visa interview.

A senior official Preeyam Bhudhia from Patton International said that the Indo-US trade will be enhanced and boosted when the travel restrictions are lifted. Also, the bilateral trade between the two countries had recovered almost 50 per cent till August 2021, which is now expected to reach the pre-COVID level of 2019 in the current year, he concluded.