230,000 visas issued in total, in 2013.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The number of Indians coming from the southern part of the country to the US for education has increased substantially over the past year, according to US Consul General Jennifer A. McIntyre in Chennai.
She explained that the number of student visa applications for people from south India have gone up by 15% in the last fiscal year. During 2013, some 230,000 visas were issued by the US Consulate in Chennai, of which roughly half were for either business-related travel or professionals – i.e. H-1B and L-1 applicants – coming to the US for work.
McIntyre made the announcement on Tuesday at the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce, during a “Doing Business with USA” seminar. She also said that there are roughly 100,000 Indian citizens studying in the US currently, which jives with a report by the Institute of International Education (IIE) this past November that said there are about 96,754 Indian students in the United States.
Additionally, McIntyre revealed that the US Consulate in Chennai was the number-one non-immigrant visa-granting office in the entire world when it comes to processing professional worker visas, and was the 13th largest in the world when it came to overall visa duties.
The US Consulate in Chennai is one of five in all of India, the other four being in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Andhra Pradesh. Each has its own specific jurisdiction – for Chennai, it overseas Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, the Union Territories of Lakshadweep islands, and Pondicherry.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com