Recession hits visa applicants to US

The number of visa applicants to US has gone down significantly due to global recession, a senior American consular affairs official said.

"The global recession took its toll on the number of visa applicants to US, including student visas, last year. We expect this will go up once recovery begins," Assistant secretary of the Bureau of Consular Affairs, US, Janice L Jacobs, said.

Jacobs said Indian student visas granted by the US was the highest for any single country and added 95,000 Indian students were studying.

Asked whether the US government was contemplating any move on immigration reforms, she said this would certainly take place at some point of time. From Kolkata last year, nearly 1,200 students were granted visas.