The US authorities have taken various measures to reduce the waiting time for visa interviews. For visitor visas, the waiting period for interviews has reduced from three years to two years. There has also been an increase in the number of interviews conducted daily, with almost 1,000 interviews conducted for visitor visas, B1 (business) and B2 (tourist) cases last year. These changes include making more applicants eligible for interview waivers, sending drop box cases abroad for adjudication, and hiring more temporary staffers. Despite the long wait for visa issuance and high airfare costs, Indians are still traveling to the US in large numbers. In 2022, the total international visitors to the US was almost 5.1 crore, up 128% from 2021, but still only 64% of the total international visitor arrivals in 2019. The top two source markets for visitors remain Canada and Mexico, which share a land border with the US, and the top overseas markets were the UK, followed by Germany. The US embassy and consulates in India have processed over two lakh visa applications so far this year and aim to process over 10 lakh non-immigrant visa applications in 2023.
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