S Jaishankar and Antony Blinken mull over US visa delays

Brut India

Americans call India a natural ally but give their visas to the Chinese? Here's the official explanation why Indians must wait  more than 2 years for a simple tourist visa to the US...

Transcript

00:00These are issues specifically visas visas issue visas visas fell through the floor

00:13If it's any consolation I can tell you that this is a challenge that we're facing around the world

00:30Is there a time frame is there a seeker, you know that the US has committed to India or going forward and

00:43What is the message that you'd like to give those who are really concerned about this visa issues on mobility?

00:49specifically visas

00:51This is particularly crucial given its centrality to education business

00:56technology and family reunions

01:00There have been some challenges of late. I'm extremely

01:03sensitive to this

01:05If it's any consolation I can tell you that this is a challenge that we're facing around the world and it's a product

01:11largely of the kovat pandemic

01:14Our ability to

01:17issue visas

01:18Dropped dramatically during kovat and without boring you with all of the details. This is the

01:25one

01:26Self-financing asked a part of the of the State Department that is around the world the fees that we get

01:33for

01:34issuing visas are

01:37Go to our budget and they go to our capacity to

01:41Put in place the people needed to process the visas when kovat hit the demand for visas fell through the floor

01:47visa fees

01:49went away

01:51The system as a whole suffered and then of course

01:54In actually issuing visas even with much more limited resources

01:58We had constraints from kovat about the number of people we could have in our embassies at any one time, etc

02:04We are now building back

02:06very

02:07Determinately from from that surging resources. We have a plan when it comes to India to address the backlog of visas

02:15That's built up. I think you'll see that play out in the coming months, but it's something that we're very focused on

02:20So bear with us to the people who are concerned about the visa issues. I would like to give the message that I

02:27understand their

02:29anxiety and their

02:32Their

02:33Urgency there are families who are not able to meet there are people who can't keep their business appointments

02:39There are students who are waiting for a long time

02:42So so it's a it's a really

02:45It's a genuine serious problem of some magnitude

02:49so but I'm I'm

02:52very confident that you know with the sincerity that secretary Blinken showed and

02:58The seriousness with which I hope they would address this and you know with this with any support that we can provide

03:06We we hope that things will

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