The U.S. Consulate in Chennai is expected to process around 2.4 lakh applications in 2014 and the majority of them are from IT firms and students.
To meet the growing demand, the consulate has taken measures to process the visas smoothly and at a fast rate.
Chief of Consular Services at U.S. Consulate General in Chennai, Nicholas Manring, said to Hindu that rising business and academic relationships between U.S and southern part of India is one of causes for rise in the demand.
He said that approximately 2.35 lakh applications are processed every year but this year it is expected that the figure will be approximately 2.4 lakhs, indicating an increase of 8% compared to previous year. In addition, he said that most of the applicants are successfully issued visas.
Mr. Manring said that Chennai Consulate is one of the bustling visa processing centers, which had granted around 5 lakh visas over the past 3 years.
The senior consul official said that in a single day i.e. on 23 May, 2014, 1,200 visa interviews were held at the consulate out of which there were 270 students. This indicates that there is a sharp rise in the demand from students.