The US Embassy in India has cancelled over 2,000 visa applications following the detection of fraud-related activities involving bots and other "bad actors." On Wednesday, the embassy confirmed that it had identified major violations in its appointment scheduling system and suspended the accounts of those responsible.
"Consular Team India is cancelling about 2,000 visa appointments made by bots. We have zero tolerance for agents and fixers that violate our scheduling policies," the embassy stated in a post on X. It added that all affected appointments have been cancelled and the associated accounts' scheduling privileges have been suspended with immediate effect.
The issue comes amid significant backlogs in visa applications, especially for B1 and B2 visas, which are for business and tourism purposes. The waiting times for these visas had reached up to 1,000 days in 2022-23. In response, the US began offering visa appointments for Indian applicants in cities like Frankfurt and Bangkok.
The visa delays have been a longstanding concern, prompting External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to raise the issue with US officials. In 2022, during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Jaishankar was told that the delays were a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The issue was revisited in January 2024 when Jaishankar discussed it with US Senator Marco Rubio, noting the negative impact of long waiting periods on India-US relations.
Beyond business and tourism visas, student visa rejections have also increased sharply. During the 2023-2024 fiscal year, the US received 6.79 lakh applications for F-1 student visas but rejected 2.79 lakh, resulting in a rejection rate of 41%. This marks a significant rise from the 36% rejection rate in 2022. In contrast, in 2014, the rejection rate was just 15%. Reports indicate that Indian students faced a 38% drop in visa approvals in 2024 compared to the previous year, further impacting the flow of international students to the US.
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