Americans call India a natural ally but give their visas to the Chinese? Here's the official explanation why Indians must wait more than 2 years for a simple tourist visa to the US...
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00:00These are issues specifically visas visas issue visas visas fell through the floor
00:13If it's any consolation I can tell you that this is a challenge that we're facing around the world
00:30Is there a time frame is there a seeker, you know that the US has committed to India or going forward and
00:43What is the message that you'd like to give those who are really concerned about this visa issues on mobility?
00:49specifically visas
00:51This is particularly crucial given its centrality to education business
00:56technology and family reunions
01:00There have been some challenges of late. I'm extremely
01:03sensitive to this
01:05If it's any consolation I can tell you that this is a challenge that we're facing around the world and it's a product
01:11largely of the kovat pandemic
01:14Our ability to
01:17issue visas
01:18Dropped dramatically during kovat and without boring you with all of the details. This is the
01:25one
01:26Self-financing asked a part of the of the State Department that is around the world the fees that we get
01:33for
01:34issuing visas are
01:37Go to our budget and they go to our capacity to
01:41Put in place the people needed to process the visas when kovat hit the demand for visas fell through the floor
01:47visa fees
01:49went away
01:51The system as a whole suffered and then of course
01:54In actually issuing visas even with much more limited resources
01:58We had constraints from kovat about the number of people we could have in our embassies at any one time, etc
02:04We are now building back
02:06very
02:07Determinately from from that surging resources. We have a plan when it comes to India to address the backlog of visas
02:15That's built up. I think you'll see that play out in the coming months, but it's something that we're very focused on
02:20So bear with us to the people who are concerned about the visa issues. I would like to give the message that I
02:27understand their
02:29anxiety and their
02:32Their
02:33Urgency there are families who are not able to meet there are people who can't keep their business appointments
02:39There are students who are waiting for a long time
02:42So so it's a it's a really
02:45It's a genuine serious problem of some magnitude
02:49so but I'm I'm
02:52very confident that you know with the sincerity that secretary Blinken showed and
02:58The seriousness with which I hope they would address this and you know with this with any support that we can provide
03:06We we hope that things will