The United States Mission in India recently held its seventh annual Student Visa Day nationwide. Consular officers from various locations in India, including New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai, conducted interviews with approximately 3,500 Indian student visa applicants.
During the event, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti emphasized the strong relationship between India and the United States, stating that more Indian students choose to study in the US than students from any other country. He expressed his admiration for the mission’s work and highlighted the importance of the US-India relationship in promoting education and welcoming students from all over the world.
Garcetti also mentioned that in 2022, one in every five US student visas was issued in India, surpassing the proportion of India’s population in the world. Indian students constitute over 21% of the total population of international students in the US, with almost 200,000 Indian students studying in the country during the 2021-2022 academic year.
The ambassador congratulated the students on their decision to study in the US, acknowledging the growing number of Indian students pursuing education in the country. He further mentioned that Indian students have demonstrated excellence in the US for many years, and the US Mission in India is on track to process the highest number of visa applications in its history.
In addition, Garcetti stated that in 2022, Indians received the highest number of H&L employment visas (65%) and F1 student visas (17.5%) worldwide. He also highlighted that over 1.2 million Indians visited the US in 2022, making Indians one of the largest groups of international visitors to the country.
Looking ahead, the US Mission to India aims to process over one million visa applications in 2023, and between June and August 2023, it plans to conduct the highest number of student visa interviews ever. In the previous year, Mission India issued a record-breaking number of over 125,000 student visas.
