New Delhi: In yet another setback for Indians looking to secure a US visa, the US Department of State (DoS) has announced a change in visa application rules that will prolong the waiting period for visa interviews.

In a directive issued on September 6, the US DoS said that non-immigrant visas like B1/B2 (visitor) and F1 (student), can only be applied for from the country in which the applicant is recognised as a citizen.

To avoid long waitlists, Indian applicants had been applying for the US visa from other countries where slots were available. However, with the directive coming in effect, those who had not yet completed the process overseas will now need to reapply from India.

The current wait time for short-term visas is over a year, with limited slots available for students, the Economic Times reported.

An overseas education startup founder, Rachit Agarwal, told ET that students were applying for US visas from Dubai, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand to avoid queues, as securing visa appointments became increasingly difficult in India.

The option to apply for visas from a different country was introduced during the pandemic to ease the backlog in processing applications.

Gnanamookan Senthurjoti, founder of immigration platform The Visa Code, told the paper that those who had applied for student or visitor visas in places such as Europe, Asia and West Asia will now need to reapply.

“They had applied overseas for two reasons. The wait times to get interview slots for some visas are much longer in India and the scrutiny is more,” he said.

The visa application process for Indian students applying for US universities has become increasingly difficult, with limited slots available since June this year.

“Nearly everything is becoming more challenging in US immigration right now, and B-1/B-2 visas are no exception,” Joel Yanovich, an attorney at Murthy Law Firm, told the paper.

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