On December 17, 2021, the U.S. Embassy in India announced that the Consular Exchange Rate will change from 76 Indian rupees to 1 U.S. dollar to 78 rupees to 1 U.S. dollar. The current rate will be valid through January 3, 2022. As per the U.S Embassy, this change corresponds to recent shifts in the…

On December 24, 2021, we had reported the U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) decision to expand the scope for visa interview waivers for certain individual petition based nonimmigrant visas. Based on this DOS’s announcement, the U.S. Embassy in India has announced that it will soon release more than 20,000 additional drop box appointments for Spring 2022 in…

Last Updated on: February 9, 2022 On December 23, 2021, the U.S. Secretary of State in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security made an announcement that expands the scope for visa interview waiver for certain individual petition based non-immigrant visas. The key takeaways from this announcement are listed below. Temporary Relaxation of Eligibility within…

On October 25, 2021, the U.S. President Joe Biden released the much-anticipated proclamation titled “A Proclamation on Advancing the Safe Resumption of Global Travel During the COVID-19 Pandemic”, which came into effect on November 8, 2021, and ended the travel restrictions imposed under P.P. 9984, 9992, 10143, and 10199, suspending entry into the United States…

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, November 3, 2021 issued an Emergency Use List (EUL) to  India’s indigenously developed vaccine – COVAXIN (developed by Bharat Biotech). With this approval, COVAXIN is the eighth COVID-19 vaccine validated by WHO for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2. This press release can be found here. Millions…

In January this year, we had reported the U.S. Department of State’s decision to extend the Machine-Readable Visa (MRV) fee until September 22, 2021. The U.S. Department of State extended the validity of Machine-Readable Visa (MRV) fees until September 30, 2022. Recently, the U.S. mission in India has notified that the MRV fee will be extended until September 30,…

With countries opening their borders, it is important to link the passport with COVID-19 vaccination. COWIN is the web portal owned and operated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. This interactive website keeps track of India’s COVID-19 vaccination program. Amongst other things, this website keeps a record of the vaccination…

On October 25, 2021, the U.S. President, Joe Biden released the much-anticipated proclamation titled “A Proclamation on Advancing the Safe Resumption of Global Travel During the COVID-19 Pandemic”. This presidential proclamation (P.P.) comes into effect on November 8, 2021, at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, just after midnight and ends the travel restrictions imposed under P.P. 9984, 9992, 10143,…

On September 20, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that travel restrictions imposed on foreign nationals entering the United States will be relaxed, starting November 2021. Our readers are aware, that earlier this year, President Biden had further tightened the travel restrictions put in place by President Trump and restricted entry into the United States…

In March 2021, U.S. Secretary of State, Antony J Blinken, in consultation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), had temporarily expanded the ability of consular officers to waive the in-person interview requirement for individuals applying for a non-immigrant visa in the same classification within 48 months of the expiry of the prior visa.…