PremiumA group of influential senators has urged the Biden administration to speed up the process of issuing visas to international students, a move that would benefit thousands of Indians who have to join their classes this fall.
At the moment, the US Embassy is issuing only emergency visas in Delhi. Therefore, a large number of Indian students are uncertain about their academic future.
There are over 100,000 Indian students in the US and they contribute significantly to the American economy.
As many as, two dozen senators wrote a letter to Secretary Tony Blinken saying, "We write to express our concerns regarding the slow pace of processing student visas as we continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic".
The senators asked the state department to provide predictable and consistent consular services, maximise alternatives to in-person visa interviews by providing waivers and virtual interviews, extend visa eligibility waivers, authorise staff overtime and increase hiring, and initiate meaningful engagement with outside stakeholders and agencies".
“We are at a critical point in the academic calendar when international students and scholars must make visa appointments and plan their travel to the United States," they added.
The senators further said while some US consulates are reopening, most are still operating at lower capacity levels and there remains limited access to visa appointments.
Prospective students cannot be certain about whether their visas will be processed in time for them to travel to the United States to begin their studies, the senators wrote.
According to the data from the Association of International Educators, more than one million international students at US colleges and universities during the 2018-2019 academic year contributed $41 billion to the country's economy.
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