The wait time for issuance of US visas is expected to see a significant fall by summer 2023 and is likely to move towards normalcy by summer next year, according to a senior US embassy official in New Delhi. After students, our next big case is H&L (IT workers’ visa – H1B falls under this). We have opened up 100,000 slots here. This brought the wait time down by half,” said the embassy official. (https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/for-india-finally-some-good-news-on-us-visa-processing-time/) Officials have stated that they are expecting Indian visa applications to surpass those from China by next year and take the second spot worldwide after Mexico. The current wait time for drop-box visa applications (visas that do not require an interview) is about nine months, and measures are being taken to reduce the waiting period. The senior embassy official also claimed that for Washington, India is the top priority in terms of visa applications. The reason cited for the current backlogs is due to Covid, which led to troubles in onboarding, vetting, and transferring councillor staff.