US consulate in Mumbai issues new electronic form DS-160
13 Jan 2010
Starting 1 February, non-immigrant visa applications to the US can be submitted online in Mumbai using a new electronic form, called DS-160.
Jim Herman, minister-counselor for consular affairs at the US Embassy in New Delhi, said the idea behind the move was to improve the embassy's service to visa applicants. Herman was speaking to newspersons in New Delhi yesterday. He said the new form would help the US authorities have the data as soon as it was submitted, which would enable faster processing of applications.
Sandy Jacobs, vice-consul, American Consulate, Mumbai, said the consulate was also looking at this as an opportunity to process the re-application visa requests of H1B and other category visas much faster, as it made it easier to pull the earlier forms out from the database.
Herman said that the consulate had invested $5 million in the hardware needed in Washington DC for worldwide data. He added that 22 countries were currently using the new form.
Thanks to some of the features introduced in the new form applicants will now be able to fill the form in multiple sittings. The forms also provide a field for a digital signature with a unique code. If the form is being filled by a travel agent, the contact details of the contact person would need to be furnished.
The payment and schedule would remain unchanged, according to Herman.
