Wait for studying in US gets shorter

New Delhi: Despite the GRE registration being put on hold till July, there’s good news for all students planning to go to US for further studies.

A senior official in the US' Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs was quoted by agencies as saying in Mumbai that the wait for student visa for US will come down to two days soon.

BECA Deputy Assistant Secretary (academic programmes) Thomas Farrell told journalists that US embassy in India had decided to expedite work on all pending applications for the same. "Currently it takes a month to process an application. We intend to bring it down to 10 days soon and then meet the international standard of two days," Farrell was quoted as saying.

The news came on the sidelines of a roundtable conference on higher education with Farrell making clear that US wants to increase its intake of Indian students. He also highlighted that higher education is a crucial service industry in the US and contributed $13.6 billion to the economy every year.

He also stressed on the need of making it a mutual exercise. "Only 1,800 American students are studying in India currently and we need to increase their numbers.”

Farrell also said the number of Indian students going to US for higher studies had dropped in the past year due to competition faced by the US from other countries like UK and Australia. "In spite of having capacity to accomodate more students, India does not market its higher education courses well compared to China, which figures in the list of top 10 countries which attract American students," he said.

The immediate goal, Farrell said, is to make India visible in the top 10 list.