By Blessing Chinagorom
The United States has revealed that from October 2022 through September 2023 (the 2023 federal fiscal year), the Department of State issued record level of nonimmigrant visas for more than 10 million globally.
According to the statement released from the State Department Spokesman, Mathew Miller on Tuesday, stating that half of the United States embassies and consulates adjudicated more nonimmigrant visas than ever before.
This is in line the Department of State committed to facilitating legitimate travel to the United States while maintaining high national security standards.
Adding that international visitors are instrumental in building people-to-people ties and bring enormous economic benefit to local communities and key sectors of the U.S. economy.
The state department said further that in addition to its near historic total of more than 4 million nonimmigrant visas issued worldwide, they issued nearly eight million visitor visas for business and tourism, more than in any fiscal year since 2015.
Preparing Americans for a global environment and attracting future leaders from abroad, it disclosed that international students at U.S. colleges and universities inject up to $38 billion dollars annually into the U.S. economy.
The State Department said further that over 600,000 student visas issued the highest in any year since FY 2017. “Our embassy and consulates in India issued an all-time record of more than 140,000 student visas.
It added that the Department issued nearly 40,000 student visas to African students, of which more than 9,700 visas were to Nigerian applicants.
Bolstering national and economic security: the department noted that in recent years, international visitors have contributed as much as $239 billion in annual spending to the U.S. economy and supported an estimated 9.5 million American jobs.
“We issued a record-breaking 442,000 visas to temporary, seasonal workers, addressing the need for workers in agriculture and other sectors where too few workers are available, contributing to the American economy while addressing the root causes of irregular migration.
“We issued 590,000 nonimmigrant visas to high-skilled workers and executives to work alongside American experts in some of the United States’ most critical fields, ranging from emerging technology to healthcare.
“We issued nearly 365,000 nonimmigrant visas to airline and shipping crew members, who are essential for maintaining global transportation and the supply chains that support the U.S. and global economies.
The Department noted that these achievements were possible because of innovative solutions, such as expanding interview waiver authorities that allow frequent travelers who meet strict national security standards to renew their visas without having to visit an embassy or consulate.
Looking to the future, we are exploring new technologies to assess opportunities to streamline operations, such as the option of domestic renewal in select visa categories.