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NEW DELHI: Indians renewing visas to the US within four years will be exempted from a personal interview. Announcing this here on Wednesday, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs Janice Jacobs said the new rules would apply to visa categories B1, B2, C and D. Jacobs, who is here for the US-India consular dialogue, is likely to face New Delhi’s concern about the growing rate of rejection of Indian work visas by the US.

"This new programme will permit consular officers to waive interviews for some qualified applicants who are renewing their visa within 48 months or four years, of expiration of their previous visa and within the same classification as the previous visa," Jacobs said. She clarified that these new rules would apply "for tourists, business travelers, crew members and for students."

"Beginning today, our consulates in India are introducing a new programme to streamline the visa renewal process. Over time, this programme has the potential to benefit hundreds of thousands of visa applicants here in India," she said.

However, this may not apply to everyone, who satisfy the norms. US consular officers, she said, would have the liberty to call any applicant to appear for an interview in view of security concerns. "So, maintaining strict security standards in our visa process is a fundamental importance to all of our citizens. For that reason, our consular officers may request an applicant to appear in person for interview at any time for any reason during the visa application process," she said.

According to the US Embassy, more than 670,000 non-immigrant visa applications were processed last year, an 11% increase from 2010. However, there is a difference between the US and India on the issuance of L-1 visas, which are temporary work visas for movement within the same company.

Jacobs insisted that India remained on top of the list as recipient for employment and work visas. "We have issued a record number of employment based visa to Indian nationals both in H1B and L category," she said.

However, James Herman, Minister (Counsellor) for Consular Affairs to India, added, "I think the positive message here is that if you look at employment visas at large, we have issued a record number of H visas which we believe that lot of L visa categories should have been given H visas.