Student visa top priority, says US Ambassador

On her first official visit to Hyderabad, Ambassador Jones said the US government was hiring and training additional vice consuls for assignment to India.

Hyderabad: The US government has accorded top priority to the student visa and the government was hiring new staff for India. There was a surge in applications for the student visa currently and it was top priority for them to assure students get the time, said the US Embassy Charge d’Affaires, Ambassador A. Elizabeth Jones.

On her first official visit to Hyderabad, Ambassador Jones on Tuesday said the US government was hiring and training additional vice consuls for assignment to India to different consulates and consul sections in New Delhi. “By this summer in India there will be staffing i.e., vice consuls and visa adjudicators above the number that was there pre-pandemic. With the new staff along with local staff, visa processing will be done. We believe that we would be able to substantially reduce the visa wait time for the B1 and B2 visas,” she said.

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As for the new US Consulate campus in Hyderabad, she said all tests were being undertaken and it would be inaugurated in the first half of this year.

Making a mention of Telangana government’s support to the industrial sector, specially for the US based companies operating in the State, she said the support has been winning appreciation. She recalled her interactions with the US-based companies like Lockheed Martin-Tata Group and others, and said these companies were ‘very complimentary’ of the support they were receiving here in Telangana.

On the recent incursions of Chinese PLA into Indian Territory in Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, the Ambassador said the US government was ‘very forthright’ about the importance of territorial integrity of India. “We maintain that it must be strongly honoured,” she said.

As for India’s stand on the Ukraine and Russia war, she said there was a clear recognition on the part of the US government that every country could make its choices based on its interest. It was not realistic and not possible for countries to dictate how other countries behave, she said.

“The United States really sees India as a partner of choice in issues that are very important to each of their peoples. For instance, one of the things done in the Quad was to promote Quad vaccine using vaccines that were produced right here in Hyderabad,” Ambassador Jones said.

She said India’s humanitarian assistance to Ukraine was “extremely important” and added that the Indian PM Narendra Modi’s speak on Ukraine stating that it was not a year for war was “entirely appropriate”.