New Delhi: A top Tourism Ministry official says the procedure Indian nationals go through to obtain a US visa needs to be accelerated to boost travel between the two nations, which have a robust bilateral relationship.
Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Tourism, said that although a US visa is valid for 10 years and does not require frequent updates by a visa holder, getting a visa for the world’s largest economy is a “cumbersome” and tiresome process. To boost Indo-US tourism, swifter visa approval and more direct flights between India and the US are needed.
At the Indo-US Tourism & Hospitality Summit, organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) here, Billa said: “I think the best thing about getting a US visa is that once you have it, it’s valid for 10 years. So, there’s not a lot of repeat visitation that happens. But you have to really walk through fire to get that visa in the first place because there are long waiting times now and, you know, so there’s a whole lot of disincentive for people wanting to travel.”
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He claimed great potential for advancement in this area because of the robust bilateral relationship and the rise in travel between the two nations.
Emphasising the need to introduce more flights between India and the US, Billa said, “The most important thing that we need to understand is that the lion’s share of the market is going through third countries. So, it is the Middle Eastern market or the European market which is benefiting. It is those airlines that carry Indians into the US. If you are able to have direct flights, not only will we make it more cost-competitive for people to travel both ways, but we will also add to the convenience of travelling into the US. And I think that, for some reason, is not happening.”
However, Jonathan M. Heimer, Minister Counsellor for Commercial Affairs, India, of the US Commercial Service, said that visa application processing has gained momentum over the past year, leading to record visa issuances.
“On the backend for the application processing, we’ve been able to process something like 60 per cent more visas with more or less the same resources. And also we have issued more than 1.1 million visas in the last year, which for us, is a record and that’s just going to continue to go up that number,” Heimer added.
Addressing the event, the Attorney General of India, R. Venkataramani, stressed the need for responsible tourism. He also emphasised that India would continue to build a cohesive and peaceful world, where tourism would be a key factor.
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–IANS
