US to start in-person tourist visa appointments from September

The United States will soon be resuming regular in-person tourist appointments from September.

The US Embassy in India has tweeted on the same and stated that the US mission to India is pleased to announce that they will start routine in-person tourist visa appointments in September 2022. Those previously scheduled placeholders have now been cancelled.

The Embassy stated that those placeholder appointments that were cancelled may now re-enter the scheduling system to book regular appointments. Appointments have been opened through 2023. It advised applicants to check the website for availability.

If reports are to go by, India had emerged as the fifth largest source country for international visitors to the US in 2021, which has been up five places from pre-pandemic 2019, despite the Delta wave that witnessed many countries imposing restrictions on outbound travel from here for several months.

Reportedly, the United States received around 2.2 crore international visitors last year, which was down 72% from 2019. Reports stated that India was the third largest overseas source country with 4.3 lakh visitors from here, next only to Colombia (10.6 lakh) and the United Kingdom (4.6 lakh).

If reports on spending by overseas visitors (not including airfares) in America is considered, Indians were the third highest. While the 4.3 lakh visitors from India were 71% lower than pre-pandemic 2019 levels, it is expected that travel will grow at a much faster pace as the United States relaxes the pre-departure testing requirement for fully vaccinated travellers from India.

Reports also state that this will further get a boost when sky-high jet fuel prices fall globally, enabling airfares to return to saner levels.