New US consulate set to open in Bengaluru by Jan 2025 amid high visa demand

Good news! The United States will soon establish a consulate in Bengaluru. US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti confirmed on Thursday that the consulate may open in January 2025, fulfilling a longstanding commitment.  

 

“We are committed to seeing our commitment to opening up Bengaluru consulate, hopefully in January,” said Garcetti during an interactive session hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC). He noted that Bengaluru is the only major Indian city without a US consulate and highlighted the presence of the Foreign Commercial Service in the city as a precursor to this development.  

 

Currently, the US operates consulates in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and New Delhi. The addition of the Bengaluru consulate is part of a broader plan that includes a second new consulate in Ahmedabad.

 

Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya welcomed the announcement, saying "For years, Bengaluru — the IT capital contributing 40% of India’s IT revenue—lacked a US Consulate, forcing residents to travel to Chennai or Hyderabad for visa work".

 

Moreover, from January 1, 2025, applicants for nonimmigrant US visas will be allowed to reschedule their interview appointments once without incurring a fee. Missing the appointment or making a second reschedule will require applicants to pay the application fee again, according to a statement from the US embassy.

 

These changes aim to “make sure everyone has a fair chance at getting a visa interview appointment and to reduce wait times,” the embassy said.  

 

Visitor visas (B1/B2) are for temporary entry into the US for business, tourism, or both.  

 

Current visa wait times

 

As of December 20, the wait times for B1/B2 visitor visas in India are as follows:  

Hyderabad: 429 days  

Kolkata: 436 days  

Mumbai: 438 days  

Delhi: 441 days  

Chennai: 479 days  

 

To address these delays, the US government plans to expand visa appointment slots by one million in 2025. “We will add an additional one million visa appointments in the financial year 2025. That’s on top of the record number of appointments we had this past year,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in November.

 

In the 2024 financial year, the US issued a record 11.5 million visas, including 8.5 million visitor visas, marking a 10% increase from the previous year.  

 

High demand for US visas

 

A US State Department spokesperson acknowledged the lengthy wait times and attributed them to soaring demand. “Wait times do not mean that people are not being issued visas. They simply reflect the extremely high level of demand for a US visa,” the spokesperson said, adding that they are working to reduce wait times by increasing staff and using technology to improve processing.  

 

Rebekah Drame, US Consul General in India, described the demand as “insatiable.” She said last month, “Last year, we processed 1.4 million visas. While this is just a fraction of the Indian population, no other US consulate globally matches this volume.”  

 

During the 2024 summer, the US consulate conducted over 47,000 student visa interviews, up from 35,000 the previous year.