US visa utility in India: Over 1 lakh appointments confirmed for H1-B, L-1 visas

The US Embassy in India has launched over 1,00,000 appointments for H&L visas for staff and their households bringing in a reduction for many who have been ready to see their households because the pandemic began. The L-1 and the H-1B visas are the 2 hottest non-immigrant work visas issued by the US.  

On Friday the US Embassy in India tweeted: “In response to excessive demand for employment-based visas, the US Mission to India not too long ago launched over 100,000 appointments for H&L staff and their households. 1000’s of candidates have already booked their appointments and the wait time for each interview waivers and first-time appointments has been minimize in half all through Mission India. This bulk appointment opening displays our ongoing dedication to H&L staff.”  

In one other tweet added: “In truth, within the first 9 months of 2022, the U.S. Mission to India had already processed over 160,000 H&L visas and we’ll proceed to prioritise H&L staff for visa appointments as assets enable.” 

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L-1A and L-1B visas can be found for non permanent intracompany transferees who work in managerial positions at multinational corporations. Whereas H1-B Visa is a a number of entry non-immigrant visa that permits overseas staff employed by US corporations to work within the nation. 

Exterior Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on his latest go to to the US had highlighted the difficulty of visa delays with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Blinken at the moment had stated the method will probably be addressed. 

On 30 September, US Embassy Counselor Don Heflin stated that there are folks within the US on H and L visas who have not been in a position to come dwelling and see their households because the pandemic began. He stated: “…we sympathise with them lots. We’re going to, someday within the subsequent few weeks, open 100,000 appointments within the yr 2023 for this class of visas. And for these of you who’re on this and need a slot, simply verify our web site each two or three days, each two or 3 hours throughout October.” 

Earlier this month, the US Embassy in India opened the appointments for all classes of visas including that the wait time could be excessive owing to excessive demand for the visas, decreased staffing, and pandemic-related disruptions in operations since March 2020.  

However regardless of this reduction to H&L visa holders, the wait time for first-time candidates for B1 (enterprise) and B2 (customer) visas are nonetheless 884 days in Delhi, 767 days in Kolkata, and 872 in Mumbai. This could imply that guests can count on to get an appointment in January 2025 and even later.