The United States Visa Conundrum

Over the last week, my wife and I went through the process of visiting VAC and the US Consulate here in Chennai to get our US visas. We submitted our applications sometime in March, and we were lucky to get a slot in September end.

Once the waiting period was over, the VAC and Consulate interviews were a breeze and well managed. At the VAC, they were allowing people to go in up to nearly an hour before their appointed time. They first made you wait in a queue, and then sent you up in batches of up to 10 applicants as the VAC counters got free. At the counter, the process was simple. They took a snap, four-finger impression of the left and right hands, and impressions of your thumbs. Roughly 4-5 minutes, unless your hands were sweaty and the impressions were smudgy.

At the consulate, again, they allowed you in up to an hour before your appointed time. After making you wait in a line outside for a short time, they huddled you inside quickly.  There was a large waiting room where close to 100 applicants were waiting. Attendants would cluster you into groups and send you to empty interview counters. At the counter, all they needed was your passport with the stickers stuck at the VAC counter. My interviewer was a smart African American who started with a trick question – ‘so where are you going to stay with your son or daughter? ‘Aha’, I thought. Trick question, no doubt. When I answered that my only son lives in Dubai, she completely lost interest in our case. After asking some banal questions, some of which she answered herself, she approved our applications and shooed us away.

Ours was a simple case of visa renewal outside the 48 months allowance. Should have been and was a simple process. Despite that, from March, when our applications were submitted to the time when we were interviewed, my wife and I ran through millions of scenarios in our minds. Based on reading on the Internet, and discussing with friends and relatives, we spent over 5K readying hundreds of papers – right from property ownership, to FD copies, to bank statements, to even an invitation from my nephew in the US with a commitment to financial coverage. At the end of the day, none of those was needed. Just one or two questions, stale jokes from my side, and our applications were approved.

Though I have applied before as a first-timer, and for both my son and wife, I shudder to experience the tension new applicants are going through now. From waiting for 800 days to not knowing what additional documents would be needed, it is quite a wild guessing game. I did see several applications that were rejected as well as many where additional documentation was asked for. The disappointment was writ large on their faces.

It would make sense for the US Government to specify what documents are needed and enough. Rather than doing that, they tell you to bring documents that you feel would enhance and support your application.

India vs China

In the recent past, there have been many news articles on the wait time in India vs that in China. Currently, in India, if you apply to the general B1/B2, the wait time is roughly 800 days. The wait time in China seems to be 2 days. For students in the F/M category, the wait time in Chennai seems to be 29 days, while it is 400+ days in other cities. For students, that means you could miss a full academic year. The US government’s answer is staffing problems because of Covid.

Interesting Numbers

Thinking about this, I came across some interesting numbers. The Chennai Consulate had roughly 10 interview counters. Some of these were reserved for people who could not speak English. They had Americans asking questions with crazy accents in Tamil and Telugu.

Assuming each counter takes about 5 minutes per applicant, one counter handles about 96 applications in 8 working hours. That means Chennai alone handles 960 applications a day, or roughly 1,90,000 applicants a year (960x25x8). Given that India has 5 visa centres, that works out to 9,50,000 applications being processed every year. This roughly matches the US claim of processing 8,00,000 applications in 2022. I have not counted lunch and tea breaks, unscheduled leaves and other contingencies. That would account for the 1,50,000 applications less.

If you have to wait for 2 odd years, and the US processes 8,00,000 applications a year, that means some 2 million applications have been filed. The US Consulates in India have received $600 million at $300 per application!

Will India Ever Get To The 2-3 Days Waiting Time?

Unless the US takes some drastic measures, the waiting time is not going to go down anytime soon. Even if they double their staff, the 800 days may go down to 300-400 days. To bring it down to 2-3 days, they have to find a way of clearing 2 million applications in 2 to 3 months. One way is to give e-visas based on some criteria being fulfilled. Another method is video interviews using staff from the US and other countries where the pressure is not so much. But I doubt any of this will be done.

Treated Like Cattle

What irked me most was that the applicants were being treated as an unwelcome crowd. We were made to stand on the footpath for quite some time, with no place to sit. No lockers have been provided. Attenders, drivers, and relatives were shooed away. You cannot carry anything other than an umbrella. Many applicants were shouted at by the guards on duty.

If I were the CM of TN, I would use the nearly 1 acre of land lying unused right opposite the US Consulate to create a parking and waiting area. Cut a path under the road for the applicants to walk right up to the entry point. Manned by US Security, all the checking and validation can be done in the waiting area, and applicants called by name to walk across in whatever batch numbers you need.  Lockers could be provided as well as kiosks for drinks and snacks. And, of course, toilets. I would even go to the extent of creating counters there that could be used for interviews.

We can only dream of such simple comforts.