M A I N   N E W S

Personal appearance must for US visa
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 10
The USA has made it mandatory that all persons who apply for the American visa after July 14 will have to appear personally, except for a few notified categories.

A senior official of the US embassy here told reporters today that the new regulation was part of modified procedures worldwide to “secure” US borders in view of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The official, however, sought to allay the fears that getting US visa was becoming difficult and remarked: “Some people mistakenly believe that most visa applicants in India are unsuccessful when they apply for visas and that it is now more difficult to qualify for a visa. This is not the case. Far more people are issued visas than are refused, and the basis criteria for qualifying have not changed in the post-9/11 era.”

To meet the anticipated rush, the US embassy is hiring additional staffers, both American and Indian, to meet the demand and deal with accumulation of backlog because of the new guideline.

The regulation would, however, not apply to certain categories of people who can continue to submit applications through the US embassy or Consulate-General “drop boxes” at Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune.

These include persons renewing or replacing a visa of the same category which is still valid or which expired less than 12 months ago and persons aged 60 or older provided they have not been refused a visa.

Children under 14 years of age whose both parents already have US visas and both are present in India are also exempted from personal appearance. Besides, government officials on official travel for the Central Government, regardless of the type of passport they carry (applications have to be accompanied by a diplomatic note), would also be unaffected by the regulation, he said.

Those who submit their applications before July 14 under the existing “drop box” guidelines would have their applications reviewed under the rules in force at the time they applied.

The US embassy officials said nearly 2,75,000 Indian citizens were issued temporary visas and 23,000 got immigrant or permanent visas last year.