NEW DELHI: America is cracking down on “bots” blocking substantial visa interview appointment dates in India, leaving many candidates with no possibility however to pay brokers about Rs 30,000-35,000 per individual to get the identical in time for his or her proposed go to.
The US embassy in India stated on Wednesday on X: “Consular Workforce India is cancelling about 2,000 visa appointments made by bots. We’ve got zero tolerance for brokers and fixers who violate our scheduling insurance policies. Efficient instantly, we’re cancelling these appointments and suspending the related accounts’ scheduling privileges (sic).”
“We’ll proceed our anti-fraud efforts. We’ve got zero tolerance for frauds,” the put up added. It’s an open secret in journey trade that whereas there’s a protracted look ahead to appointment dates for US visas — enterprise & customer B1/B2 & pupil — paying an agent magically secures a slot inside a month or so.
“We tried to get a visa interview date on our personal for our baby who needed to be part of an American college final fall however nothing was out there within the timeframe to take action. We paid an agent Rs 30,000 and obtained the identical in time,” an individual stated on situation of anonymity. Equally, the look ahead to a B1/B2 is over six months however paying Rs 30-35,000 might imply getting one inside a month or so.
Sources say brokers use bots to dam appointment dates attributable to which no near-term availability is seen when candidates need to e book one on their very own. When the look ahead to B1/B2 appointments was close to the 999-day mark in 2023, the US needed to open appointments for Indian candidates at its consulates in Frankfurt and Bangkok, amongst different locations.
India had additionally taken up the problem of lengthy visa wait instances with the US 2-3 years in the past. The US took a collection of steps to chop ready instances. Now, with US cracking down on bots, the scenario may enhance additional.
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