US Consulate Kolkata interviews about 8K student visa applicants
Kolkata: With education being a vital part of the bilateral ties between India and the United States of America, the US Consulate Kolkata has interviewed about 8000 student visa applicants while the US Mission to India has met “skyrocketing student visa demand”.
On June 13, the US Mission to India’s consular team interviewed more than 3900 student visa applicants during the 8th Annual Student Visa Day across the country, including at the US Consulate Kolkata.
Addressing the press, US Consul General, Kolkata, Melinda Pavek said that about 8,000 student visa applicants were interviewed by the US Consulate, Kolkata alone. “Thousands of students from the East and Northeast will become part of the largest delegation of Indian students in history this year in the United States,” she said.
Pavek added: “In Kolkata, we don’t just get local students but also students from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh who prefer to come here due to the close proximity.” More than 100 students and their families participated in Student Visa Day activities at US Consulate Kolkata.
Talking about visa slots, she said: “It is hard to gauge if there are enough slots. We open our visa appointments in three different waves since not all schools in the USA issue documents at the same time.”
Last year, it reportedly came to light that the US deported 21 Indian students in a single day over visa discrepancies. Pavek was asked if the US has developed any sort of grievance redressal mechanism through which deportation can be averted since it may psychologically affect the students who are there with dreams and aspirations. She said: “We never want to turn students away at the border but we do have a two-step process similar to India as well.
You first apply for and get a visa and then when you reach the US border you show your visa which is the ticket to enter the USA. The US Department of Homeland Security at the border does an analysis of whether you are there what your visa says you are there to do. Students talk to the visa officers about where they are going to study and if officers are convinced, then there are no issues.”
She added: “Unfortunately, at times, when they arrive at the US border, maybe they are arriving at an airport that’s completely unrelated to where they are wanting to study, or at times they appear to be in the US to work rather than just study. That’s where we have the two-step process. We never want any legitimate student to be turned away at the border.”
