US Embassy: 2,000 Visa Appointments Canceled in India

Days after US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on people entering their country through illegal means, the US Embassy in India has cancelled 2,000 visa appointments. According to a statement released by the Embassy office, the visa appointments were cancelled as they were linked to fraudulent activities. In a post on X, the Embassy said it had identified major violations in the appointment scheduling system by ‘bad actors’ and subsequently suspended the scheduling privileges of the associated accounts. The Embassy also made it clear that it implements a zero-tolerance policy towards agents and fixers.

“Consular Team India is canceling about 2000 visa appointments made by bots. We have zero tolerance for agents and fixers that violate our scheduling policies,” wrote the US Embassy in India on X.

It is a known fact that business, visitors, B1, B3, and student visa appointments involve a lot of waiting but when a fee is paid to the agents, it can be obtained within a month. Agents take anything between Rs 30,000-Rs 35,000 from each of the applicant to facilitate this appointment.

The Embassy said: “We will continue our anti-fraud efforts. We have zero tolerance for fraud.”

The Delhi police filed a case against several visa and passport agents on February 27, after being alerted by the US Embassy with regard to a visa fraud. The Embassy said that the agents deceived the US government by submitting forged documents to secure visas.

The embassy found that between May and August last year, nearly 30 agents were linked to multiple IP addresses, visa consultants, document vendors, passport delivery services, were involved in the violations.

It may be recalled that thousands of people have been deported, as part of Trump’s pledge to tighten US border security.