Visa seekers to US growing by 17 per cent

MANIPAL: The number of visa applications processed at the US Consulate in Chennai has been growing by an average of 17 per cent year-on-year, Consul General David Hopper said on Monday.

Remarking that this was faster than the growth of Indian economy, he said the Consulate had processed nearly 1,80,000 visa applications last year and the number continued to grow at a rapid rate.

For the fourth consecutive year, India has sent more number of students to the US than any other country.

Hopper said currently over 80,000 young Indian men and women are attending the US colleges and Universities, out of which 78 per cent enrolments are for graduation and over 18 per cent for undergraduate programmes.

"In recent years India has become a country of choice for American scholars seeking bi-national Fullbright grants to study overseas, second only to Germany," Hopper said inaugurating a training programme of the International Centre of Applied Sciences (ICAP).

Since 1950, about 7,400 Indians and Americans have received educational grants under the Fullbright programme, he said.

He termed the announcement made by American President George Bush during his recent visit to India, on the opening of a fifth consulate in Hyderabad as a "distinct acknowledgement of the growing contacts between the US and India and India's growing importance for the US".