- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
New US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti has said that reducing the waiting time for American visas for Indians is not the “10th or 11th” but the “number one priority”.
Garcetti, a former mayor of Los Angeles who got confirmed as the ambassador in a bipartisan vote in March, took charge as the key diplomat after the post remained vacant for more than two years following a change of guard at the White House.
He also took charge at a time when both India and the US have started preparations for prime minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington DC on June 22. US president Joe Biden is also expected to visit India later in the year for the G20 summit in Delhi.
Speaking to NDTV, Garcetti said, “I am very excited to be the ambassador here not only when prime minister Modi will come to the US but president Biden will be able to come here as well. That’s historic. I am not sure if this has happened before, both leaders visiting each other’s country in a gap of just months.”
Responding to a question on whether he would be looking into the matter of long waiting period for the US visa, the diplomat said it was president Biden who had told him, “Eric, go fix this”.
“It’s not just a 10th or 11th priority. It’s the number one priority for me,” the 51-year-old said.
Garcetti also said that visas touch Indians more directly than anything else that America does.
“And it’s a good problem to have. More and more Indians want to come to the United States, to study, as tourists… We are committed to solving this problem,” he was quoted as saying by NDTV.
“Already, wait times (for visa) are down 60 per cent since the beginning of the year. In January, February and March, we processed a record number of visas. Last year the largest source of student visas came from India than any other country.
“Hold on, in the next few weeks, when our leaders meet, you will get many announcements. And even before that we are prepared for the student visa season and already the wait time is getting shorter and shorter. We want more Indians to continue to come to America,” he added.
Last month, a top official had said that the US is on track to issue over a million visas to Indians in the current year.
Donald Lu, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, had told the Press Trust of India that the US is also prioritising H-1B and L visas, the most sought after by India’s information technology professionals.
Garcetti also told the Indian channel that India’s current G20 presidency is “impressive” as “India is a bridge between the past and the future, between east, west, north, south”.
The envoy denied that India and the US are coming closer due to the China factor and called the two countries “natural friends”.
“I think we really like each other. India and the US are natural friends. It’s not transactional; it’s relational. It’s not just an affinity for each other; we do have mutual interests. It’s not going to be defined by other factors, whether China or anything else,” Garcetti was quoted as saying by NDTV.
