U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Addressing the issues of visa backlogs, and recalling President Joe Biden’s order to reduce the visa time for Indians, the Ambassador of the United States to India, Eric Garcetti has said that the challenge is heard “loud and clear” and added that he is proud of the work done in just one year to reduce the visa wait time by three quarters.

In an interview with ANI, Mr. Garcetti said, “I am very proud of the work we have done in just one year to reduce the visa wait time by three quarters and to have no visa wait time in any of the categories except for first-time tourist visa which is down 75%.”

He highlighted how at the same time, the U.S. has “increased the number of visas with the same number of people by 60% in a single year, so we are hearing that challenge loud and clear”.

“We are excited about the number of Indians who want to come for reasons from business to students to even immigrant visas people becoming citizens…” Mr. Garcetti said.

In March, Mr. Garcetti told ANI that President Joe Biden told him to bring down the visa times in India, adding that it was the first instance that an ambassador was told to look into something like this in any country.

Mr. Garcetti underscored that a part of the green card backlog issue is a legislative problem and said that it is what Congress will have to address. However, he highlighted that the number of visas that have been adjudicated has brought down the waiting time by 75%.

The envoy had said, “Now, part of this is a legislative problem that Congress will have to address on the whether it’s the number of legal immigrants, the number of green cards, or the number of people who can become citizens. There’s just limits on that. Like any country, I’m sure there’s limits here, too. And that is frustrating for Indians, I think, because there’s so many Indians who want to come to America. And that’s a great part of our news, by the way. Second only to Mexicans, where Indian visas last year, the biggest number of students double the second biggest.”

“Last year, over 245,000 student visas came from India. Number one in adoptions, number one in all these categories that show 1.4 billion people, a lot of them would love to come to America. And so it’s a good problem to have. But a couple of things were changing…,” he said, on being asked about the green card backlog issue, and why there are mostly Indians who are on the backlog.

Further, on being asked if U.S. has similar plans just like Australia to launch the foreign branch campus of universities here in India, Mr. Garcetti said, “Absolutely, it’s my goal to get as many Americans to India as we are seeing Indians come to America…You will see announcements in the coming years of dozens of U.S. campuses”.

“We will have joint campuses, and joint programmes here; one Arizona State University announced that there are going to be in more than 10 different campuses around India. To me, this is what the future is about,” he said.

“Indians know more about the U.S. and the U.S. knows more about Indians, taking the world where we can be multiplicative as India times the U.S., I think the relationship is not just India plus the U.S.,” the envoy added.

Notably, Australia’s Deakin University earlier inaugurated its branch campus in GIFT City, Gujarat.

In January this year, Vice Chancellor of Australia’s Deakin University Iain Martin met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar, where they had a productive discussion on enhancing collaboration between government and academic institutions about cybersecurity. In a post on X, the Prime Minister welcomed Deakin University to collaborate with Indian universities to promote research and innovation.

Washington:

As many as 65,960 Indians officially became US citizens, making India the second-largest source country for new citizens in America after Mexico, according to a latest Congressional report.

An estimated 46 million foreign-born persons resided in the United States in 2022, approximately 14 per cent of the total US population of 333 million, according to American Community Survey data from the US Census Bureau.

Of these, 24.5 million, about 53 per cent, reported their status as naturalised citizens.

In its latest “US Naturalisation Policy” report of April 15, the independent Congressional Research Service in the fiscal year 2022, 969,380 individuals became naturalised US citizens.

“Individuals born in Mexico represented the largest number of naturalisations, followed by persons from India, Philippines, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic,” it said.

Based on the latest available data, CRS said in 2022, as many as 128,878, Mexican nationals became American citizens. They were followed by Indians (65,960), the Philippines (53,413), Cuba (46,913), Dominican Republic (34,525), Vietnam (33,246) and China (27.038).

According to CRS as of 2023, 2,831,330 foreign born American nationals were from India, which is the second largest number after Mexico’s 10,638,429. Mexico and India are followed by China with 2,225,447 foreign-born American nationals.

However, as many as 42 per cent of the India-born foreign nationals living in the US are currently ineligible to become US citizens, CRS report said.

As of 2023, as many as 290,000 India-born foreign nationals who were on Green Card or Legal Permanent Residency (LPR) were potentially eligible for naturalisation.

CRS said in recent years, some observers have expressed concern over USCIS processing backlogs for naturalisation applications.

Although there continues to be a backlog of naturalisation applications, since FY2020 the agency has reduced the number of applications pending completion by more than half.

As of the end of FY2023, USCIS had approximately 408,000 pending naturalisation applications, down from 550,000 at the end of FY2022; 840,000 at the end of FY2021; and 943,000 at the end of FY2020.

In FY2023, 823,702 LPRs submitted naturalisation applications. The number of individuals who have recently applied for citizenship remains well below the estimated population of 9 million LPRs who were eligible to naturalise in 2023. The percentage of foreign-born individuals who are naturalized varies by several factors, including country of origin.

Immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela, Mexico, El Salvador, and Brazil have the lowest percentages of naturalized foreign born, while those from Vietnam, the Philippines, Russia, Jamaica, and Pakistan have the highest.

To be eligible for naturalisation, an applicant must fulfill certain eligibility requirements set forth in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The requirements generally include being a lawful permanent resident (LPR) for at least five years. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

MOSCOW:

The U.S. embassy in Russia has warned U.S. citizens to avoid large gatherings in Moscow due to what it said were reports that extremists had imminent plans for an attack.

The embassy, which has repeatedly urged all U.S. citizens to leave Russia immediately, gave no further details about the nature of the threat, but said people should avoid crowds and be aware of their surroundings.

“The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours,” the embassy said in a message on its website.

The war in Ukraine has triggered the deepest crisis in Russia’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and Putin has warned that the West risks provoking a nuclear war if it sends troops to fight in Ukraine.

The Kremlin says relations with the United States have never been worse and says the United States is fighting against Russia by supporting Ukraine with money, weapons and intelligence.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)