Record student visas to Indians last year, number likely to cross this year: US Embassy

New Delhi: After issuing a record 1,40,000 student visas last year, the US consular team in India is all geared up to meet the expected rise in number of applications from Indian students in 2024, with a senior official at the embassy here saying that the projected total number this year will be “similar or in excess” in comparison to last year.

The US Mission in India on Thursday held its eighth annual Student Visa Day countrywide with consular officers from New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai interviewing Indian student visa applicants. At the US Embassy in Delhi, a long queue of students was seen since morning. American universities attract a large number of Indian students, and last year, the US consular team in India issued over 1,40,000 student visas -- higher than for any other country setting a record for the third year in a row. Syed Mujtaba Andrabi, acting Consul General at US Embassy in New Delhi, in an interaction at the embassy, said, “by the end of the day, we should have interviewed approximately 4,000 students.”

“It (student visas) is one of our top priorities. Academic exchange between the two countries is one of the top priorities of this administration, and our Mission here. Last year, we issued a record number of student visas, numbering 1,40,000, which has been a record...And, we will continue to focus on this area, as we go forward during this year,” Andrabi said. “We will continue to have the same focus, and maximise the number of students,” he added. Asked about the extent of the expected rise in student visas in 2024, he said, “It will be similar or in excess” to last year.

America gives “high priority” to student visas because it knows people-to-people ties “last a lifetime,” US envoy Eric Garcetti had said in an interview here late April. In 2023, the US Mission in India had processed a record 1.4 million visas overall.

“Even in a record-breaking year, India became the number one source of students in higher education in the US last year, almost twice the amount of the second highest country of origin, we were able to accommodate all the students that needed to come get visas to US with appointments,” the US envoy had then said.

The US Embassy in statement said the number of Indians who choose to study in the US has increased significantly in the past three years. In 2023, the US Mission to India issued “more student visas than in 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined.” This “unprecedented growth” reflects the ongoing commitment by the US government to prioritise students and to facilitate their travel, even as the Mission met a 400 per cent rise in demand for all other visas between 2021 and 2023, it said. Garcetti had earlier also said that “a heroic effort” of a lot of dedicated public servants who worked weekends, arranged days just for students was instrumental in making sure that students met their deadlines and American universities could welcome a historic number of

Indian students.