Immigrant Visa applicants in India now have the option to request both their passport and visa to be mailed to their home address, as long as both documents are serviced by Blue Dart. Previously, immigrant visa applicants had to choose from one of the 11 pickup locations to collect the passport. Under the new system, immigrant…

In light of the increased demand for nonimmigrant visa appointments in India, U.S. nonimmigrant visa applicants are permitted to reschedule their visa interview only twice after scheduling an appointment. After the second reschedule, the system will not permit any further changes to the appointment. If the applicant needs to further reschedule an appointment, s/he must…

With effect from Thursday, June 30, 2016, the consular exchange rate has been revised to ₹70 to one US$. This revision in exchange rate will affect the Indian rupee equivalent for all application fees paid on or after June 30, 2016. The revision is applicable across all non-immigrant and immigrant visa applications, and American Citizenship…

The wait time for a nonimmigrant visa interview at the U.S. embassy / consulates in India was negligible until a few months ago. Applicants were able to obtain an interview date within 2 to 5 business days for most categories of visas at almost any post in India. However, recently, the wait times have increased…

Effective June 5, 2016, applicants and/or authorized representatives can collect their passports from the 5 Visa Application Centers located in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Hyderabad on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. This is in addition to the regular schedule. The passport should be collected within 14 calendar days. This information can…

Many first time H1B beneficiaries will be gearing up for their consular H1B visa application process as the start date for H1B employment (October 1) approaches. It may be recalled that one can apply 90 days prior to the start date mentioned on the I-797 and can travel up to 10 calendar days prior to…

When the new visa processing system was introduced in September 2012, U.S. Visa Application Center (formerly Offsite Facilitation Centre) – VAC was appointed as sole call center for all U.S. Consular posts in India to handle / resolve any visa related queries.  The only exception was with the U.S. Consular post in Chennai. They continued…

In this article, we take a look at the general process and the challenges faced by U.S. Citizen minor children (under 16 years) to obtain or renew a U.S. passport while in India. General Process for application to obtain or renew a minor U.S. Passport One should first schedule an appointment online, using the American…

In May 2015, we had reported that India changed “Tourist Visa on Arrival” to “e-Tourist Visa” to avoid confusion. Following this, India has been working actively to increase the number of countries covered under this strategy. Effective February 26, 2016, India added 37 more countries to the original list of 113 countries. The list of…

An update on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection site indicates that effective November 2016, Chinese nationals holding a 10 year B-1/B-2, B-1, or B-2 visa on their “Peoples Republic of China” passport will have to update their biographic information once in every two years using the Electronic Visa Update System (EVUS). Travelers using other…