New Delhi, March 14
Confirming that it has been grappling with visa application frauds in Punjab and other places in India, the US Embassy here has a very simple advice for American visa seekers -- don’t lie and don’t commit frauds.
“If you don’t qualify for the US visa, don’t come to us… it does not help. The chances are that you will never get the visa once you lie or commit a fraud,” James W Herman, Minister-Counsellor for Consular Affairs at the US mission, told The Tribune.
According to him, it was quite easy for officers dealing with visas to make out if an individual applying for the visa was a genuine applicant or was hiding the truth. Therefore, it would only be in the interest of the visa seekers to speak the truth.
Describing as a misconception the general impression that it was very difficult for an Indian to obtain US visa, he said the US Embassy had certain yardsticks for verifying every visa application. “We look for strong social, economic and family ties... if you are a good applicant, we want to facilitate your travel.”
Herman said he was aware that a lot many people in Punjab had relatives and friends in the US whom they wished to visit. The American mission always tried to find out if one had “social ties” and whether the individual would return to India. In the process, some genuine visa seekers might have also been denied visas and for that, he said, he felt sorry.
Vehemently denying the charge that the American mission was profiling Muslims while issuing visas, the US official said: “We train our officers not to treat different people and different religions differently. Our officers (dealing with visa applications) are diverse… there are Christians, there are Muslims.” He said it had been the endeavour of the US administration to treat every visa seeker as an individual and treat him/her with dignity and respect. The visa processing system was also very transparent.
Asked if the US mission was also facing the problem of visa frauds by Indian students like the British High Commission, Herman said the American system was quite different from the British process since it was difficult for any student to commit a fraud because of the American interview system. There were some 100,000 Indian students in various American universities. “Most of them have a wonderful experience. Most of them return to India and have a positive impact on the Indian society.”
Asked if the economic recession had impacted plans to hire foreign workers by the US through H1B visas, he admitted that there had been a decrease in issuing H1B visas but emphasised that the step was not targeted against Indians. It was just market-driven and the H1B visas would again pick up soon.
On the new DS-160 visas application forms which appear to be quite tedious and long, he said contrary to the perception, the DS-160 form was an easy online process since one could fill it sitting at home.
