US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on his maiden visit to India, announced an app, a tool called 'AppUS', that will use a single prioritisation principle: applicants who strengthen ties with the United States get earlier access to scheduling visa interviews.

Rubio who began a 4-day visit to India on 23rd May 2026, said the "America First" visa scheduling tool is a means to give a broader push to upgrade how American consulates operate. Rubio said the visa tool that gives priority to business professionals and people whose travel directly strengthens economic and strategic links with the United States.

Rubio said this and other actions to follow during his visit and after were aimed at demonstrating and growing the comprehensive strategic partnership with India. He refuted those analysts who projected his visit as a rejig and rest of India-US ties. Rubio said India remains a key pivot of US global strategic and financial policies and a major financial and technology partner. 

He said that the US and India have expanded commercial ties now with more than US Dollars 20 billion in investments from Indian companies in the United States. He pointed to the Quad between the US, Australia, Japan and India with a view to securing the Indo-Pacific. Rubio is in India for the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting on 26th May 2026.

Talking about the priority visa scheduling app, Rubio explained that a slow or unpredictable consular process gets in the way of business visits, investment trips, and partnership meetings that are essential to building ties. To remove the friction, a smarter scheduling system is needed.