Donald L Heflin, the minister-counselor for consular affairs at the US embassy in Delhi, came live on Facebook to announce some important news on various kinds of non-immigrant visas. He came live from the page of the US consulate general in Chennai for around 30 minutes. He declared that the chances of the Indian students approving their US visas are the most on the first interview itself.
What Did Donald L Heflin Announce?
As announced by Heflin, the probability of the approval of US visas of the F-1 student visas from India decreases in the second or third interview. He stated during the Facebook live, as reported by Times Of India, ‘I had stirred up a little controversy in the Times of India a couple of weeks ago on this. What is really going on with this policy change is that we would rather give all the fresh applicants, who are turning up for the first time for a visa interview to study in a US college, a chance. The best way to do that is to block out the people refused a student visa before.’
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He further stated, ‘We had a high issuance rate last year and a few got a chance for two interviews. This year, we will open student visa interviews earlier in mid-May and hope to issue even more student visas than the 62,000 issued last year, which was more than ever before.’
Indian Students Are Unlikely To Get Second Interview Slot For US Visas This Year
The process of the Indian student’ US visas interview started quite late last year due to the Covid-Delta wave. During that time, many students have already received their I-20 documents from various US universities and were awaiting the interviews.
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There are many students who got the refusal of their US visas quite a few times in the past. There are also some students who were abjured in the spring this year. For all these students who planned to reapply this summer, the chances of getting interview slots are improbable.
He also announced that the B-1 and B-2 visitor visa interview slots for first-time applicants will open on 1 September. The US embassy is expecting to issue about 80,000 visas in India in the coming year. They are expecting that the volume of visas will probably recover to 100% by the middle of 2023; similar to the pre-pandemic time.