US Consulate in Hyderabad ranked among top 10 globally

It has been a decade of helping many realise their American dream for the US Consulate General in Hyderabad.

In the last 10 years, the number of non-immigrant visas issued by the Consulate here has increased nearly five times. The Consulate, which was established in 2008, had issued 37,587 various types of non-immigrant visas in 2009 and this number increased to 1.73 lakh in 2017. It has now become one of the busiest US visa-issuing posts in the world and is ranked among the top 10 globally for both student and business visas.

Katherine B Hadda, Consul General, US Consulate General in Hyderabad, has recently said that over 11 lakh visas were issued to Indian travellers seeking to visit the United States since the Consulate opened its doors.

Interestingly, the US Consulate General in Hyderabad is the first US diplomatic office opened by the US government in India since India’s



independence.

And since then, the Consulate has been playing a key role in cementing strong economic, cultural, tourism and education ties with India. It also has to be remembered that the past decade also witnessed a huge increase in US-India commercial partnership. In Hyderabad alone, major American companies such as Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Amazon, Google, Uber and Apple, to mention a few, have begun operations.

Now housed in the historic Paigah Palace in Begumpet, the Consulate will have a new address in the city with construction of a new complex on a 12.3 acre site in the Financial District being underway. The new facility will have the capacity to accommodate 1,500 to 2,500 visa applicants on a daily basis. The existing consular section with 10 functioning interview windows will expand to 51 in the new building, which is expected to completed by 2021.