A consultate General in Hyderabad and expanding services at existing offices is among a slew of measures the US authorities have embarked on to make the process of issuing visas to Indians smoother. Announcing the plans on Wednesday, visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty, however, cautioned applicants not to be “fooled by advertisements for visa document packages or promises of guaranteed visas”.

She said the two governments were cooperating in tackling the problem of visa fraud, pointing out that complete information on the visa process was available on the embassy website and that middlemen were not needed. “We have changed many of our visa procedures but we have not changed the qualifications for a visa nor relaxed our vigilance against fraudulent applications,” she said.

She maintained that students were high on their priority and they do not want a single student to miss their first day of class. “India has 80,000 students studying in the US, more than any other country,” Harty said. This year, the US has received over 50,000 student visa applications from Indians, the highest number ever.

Besides the new consulate in Hyderabad to ease the load from its Chennai office, plans include doubling the size of the consulate in New Delhi by 2009 and upgrading consulates in other cities, including a new building in Mumbai. Increase in staff and flexible procedures has already brought down the wait time for visa appointment from six months in September 2006 to about two weeks in May this year, she said, adding “98 per cent of qualified applications are approved within two days.”

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