US Student Visa Interviews for Indians to Increase by 30% in Summer of 2023

The US has recorded a sharp increase of 1.7% in student visa applications from Indian students this year up to March 2023 in comparison to the previous year. To more proactively grant Indians a student visa, US Consul General - Mike Hankey has made a statement to increase student visa interview appointments by 30% this summer. Despite major tumultuous situations in terms of job loss and lower opportunities in the US, Indian students are still preferring to study in the USA across its universities and colleges.  

More than 1,700 applications have been filed for US student visas in March 2023 in comparison to 400 in January this year by Indian students. Thus, with an increasing number of F-1 student visa applications, the US Consul General’s statement is a relief for Indian students for their interviews will not be delayed due to already existing backlogs. With this, the visa interview timelines would also see a change and there will be a fast-track processing of the student visa applications for Indian students. 

Last year, the US granted over 1.25 lakh student visas to Indian students and this year in 2023, it is predicted that number will increase drastically. To cater to the gaps, the US has already started taking steps to bear the minimum possible weight of work for its officials. For this, the US has appointed more officials across their embassies to help bridge the time gaps in assessing student visa applications and conducting interviews.  

Other than this, Indian students are eligible to apply for their student visas in the USA a year prior to their program commencement. This announcement came when the US consulates and embassies were swamped with excessive student visa applications but with limited Consular officers which took them around 300 days (about 10 months) to assess and approve an application. Hence, filing student visa applications in the US 1 year before program commencement came in to help both international students and the officials at the US embassies. 

With these steps, Indian students will have to wait for a smaller time frame for their student visa applications for studying in the USA. This would also help students in following their timeline per intake sessions as well. Overall, these announcements only bring a positive ray of hope among students to be able to get done with the process in time and begin studying at US universities well within time without much ado.