US Consulate in Chennai Sole Blanket Visa Center for Indians

November 11, 2011 | Filed under: Canada,India | Posted by: Tahir

The United States of America Consulate General in Chennai India will be the only center to receive, process applications and issue Blanket L visas to Indian nationals from December 1, 2011. Blanket L category visas are granted to the managers, executives or professionals having specialized knowledge who are transferred within the company from office in India to operation in USA.

The applicants of Blanket L visa category will have to travel to Chennai from all over India for interviews. Nicholas Manring, the Chief of Consular Services at the US Consulate has said in a press conference that United States Consulate General in Chennai will be the sole blanket L category visa acceptance and processing centre, and companies throughout the country have to send the applicants exclusively to Chennai for visa interviews. He further added that that the decision was to streamline the blanket L visa issuance process. The Consulate here handled a majority of such applications.

The change will affect only the application of the principal applicant and there are no changes in processing of the spouses and children of the L category Blanket visa holders. They still can apply at any United States Consular section in India without requiring to send the application to the US Consulate in Chennai. The dependent applicants’ applications will be processed at the same US Consulate where the application has been submitted.

The rules for processing of the application for Blanket L visa remain the same without any amendment and only the process is centralized in India only.