HYDERABAD: The US Consulate General Hyderabad will continue providing consular services to tens of thousands of citizens ranging from passport services to helping citizens who need emergency support in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha from its new facility at Financial District, Nanakramguda.
“The swanky new US Consulate General building in Hyderabad is the biggest in South Asia in terms of staffing and capacity,’’ explained Jennifer Larson, US Consul General, Hyderabad, while addressing her first press conference after moving into the new building, on Wednesday.
“The US Mission to India is on track to process more than a million visas this year. And here in Hyderabad, we now have more consular officers on staff to conduct visa interviews than we’ve had at any time in years.”
“A large component of demand for visas comes from local students who wish to study in the United States. In order to help students and their parents make informed decisions, we support education advising through the US- India Educational Foundation and the Education USA Center at the Y-Axis Foundation in Jubilee Hills.” The new US Consulate office has 54 windows for visa interviews and other services compared to the 16 in Paigah Palace to make visa processing much easier and faster.
The new Consulate General in Hyderabad is built across 12 acres at a cost of $340 millions. It supports the continued expansion of US - India diplomatic, security and commercial relations.
Consul General, Rebekah Drame, Chief Consular Officer said that, “While the highest number of consular services provided in a single day at Paigah Palace was around 1100 the new facility can process about 3,500 services per day once it becomes fully functional.”
“We know that the visa demand is really high, especially here in Hyderabad. Like the rest of Mission India we are focused and dedicated in getting as many Indians as possible to study, work and visit the United States.”
“For example, we have more categories of people eligible to re-apply their visas without coming for the interview. We also staffed the Hyderabad office post-pandemic. The usage of the dropbox has also been expanded. Earlier the visa can only be renewed if a person is applying for the same type of visa. But now irrespective of the type of the visa, one can use dropbox service for applying to any other type of visa without coming in person. Hence the number of appointments have reduced drastically as only first time applicants have to visit the office.”