The United States begins three new pilot programs for express visa service at its consulate in Kolkata, India.
At a time when obtaining an entry visa to the United States has become more difficult for Indians, experts believe that the best consulate is Kolkata, as the American administration is trying to implement various pilot projects from its consulate in Kolkata.
It is not yet known whether these experiments will be implemented in other consulates in India as well. The Kolkata Consulate is the oldest consulate in India, coming before Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
3 pilots new visa is only available in US Consulate Kolkata
1. For over 50 parents
Earlier this month, the State Department rolled out a faster system for visa openings for parents over 50 who want to visit their children in the United States.
2. Shorter wait times for true business travelers
B1/B2 visa slots are seeing a lot of rejections across India as visa officials are being more cautious about people looking to settle in the US coming on a visitor visa.
Visa officers carefully examine the applicant’s ties with his or her country of origin to determine the opportunity to give up their lives in India. But the Consulate in Kolkata has started an initiative where business and tourist travelers will have shorter waiting times.
3. New B1/B2 categories
Some applicants said they found new categories when they tried to apply for a US visa from the Kolkata consulate. New subcategories include: business people, parents visiting their children, general tourism and travel, and recent visa refusal.
“The new B1/B2 pilot program at the Kolkata Consulate puts US economic priorities first – that means prioritizing you if you are a business traveler or a genuine tourist. And shorter wait times for those who strengthen US-India relations,” the consulate said. These announcements came ahead of the visit of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where he praised India and its relations with the United States.However, places available for H-1B visa holders and students are slim across India, as the US administration has started screening the social media of H-1B visa holders and students, making the waiting time stressful for Indians.
