Julia Stanley, Minister Counselor for consular affairs said, that new visa processing structure will simplify appointment arrangement, appointment fee payments and grant the applicants with new relief options. Under our new system, we have more payment options offered for visa application fees. While the changes in procedure are a part of global support strategy programme by US state department across the world, the new system will be implemented in India.
Under the new structure, the US visa applicants will be able to pay application fees through electronic fund transfer, mobile phones and collect their documents from 33 document pick-up locations in the country. The moves comes after the launch of interview waiver programme back in March which allowed specific qualified applicants to renew their visas without coming for the interview.
According to Stanley, a major amend in the processing structure is that applicants will need to program two appointments, one for fingerprint collection at an Offsite Facilitation Centre and one for consular interview at the Embassy or consulates.
Stanley added, ‘Applicants can also contact us, schedule their appointments through telephone, e-mail or online chat. The call centre service, free for all, can answer questions in Hindi, English, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu, and the consulate has also launched its new website in Hindi and English where applicants can also track their application status.
Applicants renewing their visa may not have to give their fingerprints more than once.
Source: IANS