The United States embassy in New Delhi has simplified the process of visa issuance. The visa issue process has been made more user-friendly to cater to the demands of an ever-increasing number of Indians travelling to US, which is expected to rise to one million by next two years.

A new facility has been opened in Jhandewalan, near New Delhi railway station with a seating arrangement for 150 applicants, in addition to a waiting room, for this purpose by the US embassy. The embassy has roped in an information technology service provider, a private security agency, and a professional courier for this purpose.

The new facility with 10 counters will function from 7 am to 3 pm. It will collect the applications, process them online, and send it to the embassy. The visas will be issued after the usual screening of the applications and despatched to the applicants through couriers or Speed Post.

The embassy decided to open this new facility at New Delhi following the success of similar facilities in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad for the last one-and-a-half-year, says John Nay, minister councilor for consular affairs, US Embassy.

"We have issued over 2,70,000 visas through our consular office in Chennai, without a single case of missing documents in the last one-and-a-half years," says Alber Thibault, charge'd'affaires at the embassy.

The move was necessitated following the jump in the number of Indians travelling to the US on various purposes, says Thibault adding "our projection ahead for Indian visitors to the US by 2003-4 is one million."

"In 1997, there were 2,50,000 to 2,70,000 visitors from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta. By 2000 it soared to half a million," he says.

"India is now a much more prosperous country and Indians can afford to travel to the US," says Thibault. "This led the US embassy to simplify visa application procedures with a view to the increasing demand," he explains.

The managing director of TT Enterprices, which is offering the online service, P Varadan says successful applicants will no longer have to wait at the embassy to collect their passports and visa, as the documents would be returned through courier to the aspirants in any part of northern India.

In addition to the facility at Jhandewalan, the aspirants can also apply for visas through Internet (www.Ttsdropbox.com,) which has an interactive online visa application form, Varadan says.

After entering the details, the applicant will get a bar code number. He can further track his visa status by punching in that number online, he added.