US visas for Pak fall, Indians up |
Pakistan has had a significant 40 per cent drop in the number of American visas granted to its nationals under the new Trump administration despite not being on the list of the US President`s travel ban countries. Interestingly, the number of non-immigrant US visas to Indians has increased by 28 per cent in March and April 2017 as compared to the monthly average of the previous year. Pakistanis were issued 3,925 non-immigrant visas in April and 3,973 visas in March 2017 under the Trump administration. The Obama administration last year issued a total of 78,637 non-immigrant visas to Pakistanis with a monthly average of 6,553, which was 40 per cent higher than the current average. However, visa demand is cyclical, not uniform throughout the year and affected by various factors at the local and international level. Visa issuance numbers tend to increase during peak travel seasons, such as during the summer and the winter holidays, though there may be different trends at the country, nationality, or visa-category level".The data showed that Indian nationals received 87,049 visas in April and 97,925 visas in March this year. Last year, people from India received 72,082 non-immigrant visas each month on average with an annual total of 864,987 visas.
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