India has considerably improved its position with regard to the traveler source market to the United States as of Q2 2023, as per the US Department of Commerce. India is now number 2 (excluding Mexico and Canada) in the list of overseas traveler source markets to the United States. The rank was 3 during the previous four quarters and 8 during the pre-Covid time in 2019. The experts point out that the improvement to the second rank is despite the huge backlog of tourist visas, which indicates high pent-up demand.
India is expected to become the top traveler market to the United States with vacations or holidays main purposes of the trip. The other purposes of the trip include visits to friends and families or business travels.
The data comes as Indians were the second largest visitors (after the UK) to the US during the peak travel month of June this year. The jump is despite a long visa processing backlog and skyrocketing airfares. As per the US Department of Commerce, more than 1.5 lakh Indians visited the US as of September this year.
The American Embassy in India has assured that they are working to reduce the visa processing time and are clearing the backlog in stages. Currently, the processing time for a tourist visa to the United States varies per city and stands as high as 607 days in Kolkata to 441 days in Hyderabad.
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In order to clear backlogs faster and reduce the visa processing time, Indians were also offered the facility to apply for US tourist visas from the consulates of other countries. The visa authorities are also resolving technical problems from their end which create delays in steps like appointments, interview scheduling, etc.
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