NEW DELHI: A file variety of Indians are set to journey to the US this yr. Whereas calendar yr 2023’s determine of 17.6 lakh desi guests in America had already overtaken pre-Covid 2019 excessive of 14.7 lakh, over 15.5 lakh Indians have been there in simply eight months from Jan to Aug this yr. By the point the coed journey month of Sept is over, final yr’s determine would both have been matched or bested, setting a brand new excessive for 2024.
Whereas Indian diaspora of 51 lakh within the US means massive visiting pals and kin journey from right here, there may be robust enterprise and scholar journey, too.”India-US relations have by no means been higher and people-to-people ties characterize that. In Jan-Aug 2024, India has emerged because the second largest abroad supply market of worldwide guests to the US,” Jonathan M Heimer, minister counsellor for business affairs on the US embassy in Delhi, mentioned Thursday.
Canada and Mexico ship the very best variety of worldwide guests. In 2023, India was third largest abroad supply nation (not accounting for Canada and Mexico) after UK and Germany. This Jan-Aug, India’s tally has overtaken Germany. In 2019, India was tenth greatest supply market total for the US and eighth greatest abroad.
Whereas the US mission has been issuing file visas in India, the demand is so excessive that the wait interval for an interview-required customer visa (as per the US state dept web site Thursday) was 477 days in Kolkata, 466 in Delhi, 433 in Chennai, 352 in Hyderabad and 312 in Mumbai.
What’s clearly paying off is the US coverage of issuing 10-year, a number of entry visas to profitable candidates, resulting in a excessive variety of repeat visits – one thing that can’t occur to nearer Europe resulting from Schengen States issuing largely short-term visas. Repeat visits imply going by the excruciating paperwork-heavy Schengen visa software course of repeatedly.
US is eying India to fulfill its goal of worldwide guests and increase its economic system. Brian Beall, director of Nationwide Journey and Tourism Workplace (NTTO), below the division of commerce, mentioned the US set a goal of attracting 9 crore guests spending $280 billion yearly by 2027.
