The number of visa applicants to US has gone down significantly due to global recession, a senior American consular affairs official said.
Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the twin tower attacks, the US Travel Association also urged the Transportation and Security Administration to reduce the security screening wait time at major airports to less than 10 minutes.
Twenty-year-old Rahul Sharma, a student in the United States, was shot in the head and killed in Fremont's Centerville neighborhood, Ritu Jha reports.
Much as we journalists try, it is sometimes difficult to 'switch off' the personal from the professional, says Ritu Jha.
Indian documentary filmmaker Vijay Kumar, who is being prosecuted in the US for carrying brass knuckles in a prohibited place, could get a jail term of up to 10 years if convicted.
Former United States President Jimmy Carter on Friday flew out of North Korea after securing the release of American national Aijalon Gomes, who was jailed in the Communist state for illegal entry into the country. 'Former President Jimmy Carter announced that he is leaving Pyongyang, North Korea, this morning accompanied by Aijalon Mahli Gomes,' said a statement issued by the Carter Center late Thursday night
The immigration bail hearing of Indian documentary filmmaker Vijay Kumar, who was detained at an airport in Houston for carrying a weapon in his baggage, has been shifted to September 2.
Indian film-maker Vijay Kumar, arrested for carrying jihadi literature and brass knuckles at the Houston airport, has been released on a USD 5,000 bond and ordered not to move out of the city till Friday. A resident of Malad in north-western Mumbai, Kumar was released on bail on Tuesday night after he spent five days at the Harris County Jail
In the third part of a series on Indian Americans who have won the George Marshall Scholarship in 2012, Arthur J Pais profiles Rahul Rekhi, a biomedical engineering graduate who wants to revolutionise healthcare and find ways to tackle diseases like cancer and stroke.
Terming the Taliban attack on the Mehran naval air base as a 'big security lapse,' Pakistani defence and political analysts on Monday said that 'insiders' were facilitating the militants in their deadly agenda and asked the government and military to wake up to this.
'In the absence of hostile or malafide intents (politically speaking), it is best to agree to pursue the matter soberly in courts of law. Fattening lawyers is far more conducive to international peace than agitating politicians,' says Nitin Pai.
'Devyani -- she is a public servant and her personal life has already received far too much attention -- and her ambitious father now need to retreat to the background so that wiser diplomatic heads restore sanity to India-US relations as India prepares for parliamentary elections,' says Ambassador K C Singh.
A Pakistani national was arrested at the American Embassy in Chilean Capital of Santiago, with traces of explosives, US officials said in Washington. The individual identified as Muhammad Saif-ur-Rehman Khan has been handed over to Chilean authorities and the US has launched an investigation into the case.
Describing the death sentence awarded to 17 Indians in UAE as a "mockery of justice", leading rights watch Amnesty International has asked the country to probe allegations of torture and ensure a fair trial on appeal.
Qatar has postponed plans to introduce more stringent visa rules for entry into the country, officials said.
United States President Barack Obama on Friday telephoned Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan to discuss the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and killed over 360 people, as the Pentagon geared up for a possible relief and rescue operation in affected areas.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has met the families of 21 Indians, who have been charged with diamond smuggling in China, and assured them that he will raise the issue during his meetings with the top Chinese leadership.
India's concerns on a host of issues, including issuance of stapled visas and "illegal" construction in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, will be taken up by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna during his meetings with Chinese leadership when he visits that country from Monday.
Indian consulate officials in Dubai were on Tuesday given access to 17 Indians sentenced to death for killing a Pakistani national in UAE, even as New Delhi described the development as "shocking" and promised legal assistance to them.
Describing as "shocking" the death sentence to 17 Indians in the United Arab Emirates, the government said on Tuesday that it will ensure all possible help to them, including legal assistance, to file an appeal in a higher court.
The US sought to justify the use of ankle monitors on the students, duped by now closed Tri-Valley University, saying it was widespread across America as a standard procedure for a variety of investigations and does not necessarily imply guilt or suspicion of criminal activity.
US Consulate General Mumbai's Consular Chief Deanna Abdeen addressed reader queries on how to apply for a US visa.
Obama administration says onus on students and their families to make sure they are not hoodwinked by US sham universities
As many as 884 Pakistani nationals, including fishermen, are currently in Indian jails and 79 of them have completed their prison terms, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Ammad Khan said on Monday.
A day after it gave consular access to 21 Indians detained for allegedly smuggling diamonds, China said on Thursday that it would protect their "legitimate rights".
Eleven UN peacekeepers were killed on Wednesday as the strongest earthquake in more than 200 years jolted Haiti as officials said the 141-strong Indian contingent in the Caribbean nation is safe.
An official of the Indian Embassy in China, on Wednesday, met the 21 Indians detained there for alleged diamond smuggling and legal help is being arranged for them, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said.
The Indian Embassy in Beijing immediately took up the matter with the Chinese government and sought Consular access to them, they said. The Consular access has been granted for Wednesday.
The US Consulate officials on Tuesday announced that a new online visa application process would be launched from February 1, wherein non-immigrant visa applications will be submitted using an electronic form.
Giving out a clean chit to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, the Australian police has said that it did not find any breach of law by the whistleblower in his home country.
For all of the euphoria by both sides over the third US-India strategic dialogue in Washington, DC last month that was co-chaired by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, and the several collaborations announced in various areas and agreements initialed, when it comes to the totalisation agreement where over $1 billion has been contributed each year by Indian temporary workers in the US as social security payments over decades that h
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna inaugurated the new Indian consulate in southern Sri Lankan coastal city of Hambantota, voicing confidence that India will take advantage of the industrial and commercial potential in the region, which has witnessed increased Chinese engagement.
India has requested the US government to ensure that "due process" is followed in the case involving Indian Institute of Technology alumnus Vikram Buddhi charged with sending threatening e-mails to several American leaders, including former US president George W Bush.
The United States has sought consular access to five American nationals, who were recently arrested in Sargodha in Pakistan's Punjab province on suspicion of links with terrorist groups, the state department said on Wednesday.
A group of US nationals arrested in Pakistan over alleged terrorist links will not be deported until security agencies verify that they had not violated local laws, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Friday.
The curious case of the Indian Consulate in Chicago issuing a visa to Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for allegedly plotting terror attacks in India, appears to be getting more complicated. Both Rana and his wife Samraz Rana had been issued multi-entry visas by the Consulate with the visa stamp clearly stating that this had been issued at the 'discretion of the CG' (Consul General).
The number of Americans of Indian-origin coming back to India, especially South India, has increased in the last few years as the opportunities available for them here had increased, an American official said on Tuesday.
Much before the Tri-Valley University scam that affected many Indians was exposed in the United States, the American Consulate in Mumbai had expressed concern over the steep jump in lesser qualified student visa applications, a leaked US diplomatic cable has said.
The Obama administration has overcome its reservations of the last two years because of the Chinese sensitivities in this matter and decided to send US search teams back into Arunachal Pradesh, says B Raman
A senior official in the Barack Obama administration has said that all contentious issues, including concern that Indian students are being duped by sham universities and colleges that have questionable credentials, would be on the table during the major United States-India Education Summit in October.
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