NEW DELHI: A record number of Indians are set to travel to the US this year. While calendar year 2023’s figure of 17.6 lakh desi visitors in America had already overtaken pre-Covid 2019 high of 14.7 lakh, over 15.5 lakh Indians have been there in just eight months from Jan to Aug this year. By the time the student travel month of Sept is over, last year’s figure would either have been matched or bested, setting a new high for 2024.
While Indian diaspora of 51 lakh in the US means large visiting friends and kin travel from here, there is strong business and student travel, too.”India-US relations have never been better and people-to-people ties represent that. In Jan-Aug 2024, India has emerged as the second largest overseas source market of international visitors to the US,” Jonathan M Heimer, minister counsellor for commercial affairs at the US embassy in Delhi, said Thursday.
Canada and Mexico send the highest number of international visitors. In 2023, India was third largest overseas source country (not accounting for Canada and Mexico) after UK and Germany. This Jan-Aug, India’s tally has overtaken Germany. In 2019, India was 10th biggest source market overall for the US and eighth biggest overseas.
While the US mission has been issuing record visas in India, the demand is so high that the wait period for an interview-required visitor visa (as per the US state dept website Thursday) was 477 days in Kolkata, 466 in Delhi, 433 in Chennai, 352 in Hyderabad and 312 in Mumbai.
What is clearly paying off is the US policy of issuing 10-year, multiple entry visas to successful applicants, leading to a high number of repeat visits – something that cannot happen to nearer Europe due to Schengen States issuing mostly short-term visas. Repeat visits mean going through the excruciating paperwork-heavy Schengen visa application process repeatedly.
US is eying India to meet its target of international visitors and boost its economy. Brian Beall, director of National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), under the department of commerce, said the US set a target of attracting 9 crore visitors spending $280 billion annually by 2027.