American visas to Indians set to zoom

New Delhi/Mumbai: With Indo-US bonhomie at its best, the United States is all set to grant entry visas to a record number of Indians in the months to come.
In September and October this year, the first two months of the US fiscal, the US has issued 78 per cent more visas to Indians than in the same two months of last year. In fact, the US consular operations have had to requisition staff from all over the world to cope with the additional work.
Indians have bagged no less than 30 per cent of the visas granted by the US worldwide for skilled temporary workers. Last fiscal, over 127,000 such visas were issued to Indians. And at over 80,000, India has the largest number of foreign students in the US. In fiscal 2006, 24,622 Indian students got a US visa -- a 32 per cent increase over the previous year.
The US issued 358,734 temporary visas in fiscal 2006, up 14 per cent from 313,800 in the previous year. This was in addition over 30,000 immigrant visas. India is now second only to Mexico among all countries for visa demand.
18/12/06 Business Standard/Rediff

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