Amid the growing reports over bemoaning state of movement from India to United States, latest stats hint a good surge in US visas for India whereas a big drop of visas for Pakistan.
According to last two months of data by US state department, the number of non-immigrant visas granted to neighboring country Pakistan have declined by around 40% whereas India witnessed a sharp 28% high when compared with last year’s data. Making no exception to Trump’s strategy of blocking visitors from Muslim-majority nations, the US state department is indirectly giving cold shoulder to Pakistan.
As per records, Pakistanis were granted 3925 & 3973 visas for March and April months respectively. The average number of visas issued (per month) in President Barack Obama’s governance was around 6553. Interestingly, India saw a gradual increase in number of visas issued in last couple of months. For March & April-2017, a massive 87,049 and 97,925 visas were granted by United States against monthly average of 72,082 in the previous year.
In a move to check the trend of fattening immigrants from Muslim-majority nations, President Donald Trump had decided to stop them from entering their country and passed an executive order against the six nations. However, following the intervention of federal judge, the travel ban was halted.
Reacting to monthly-wise visa decline in Pakistan, an official from State Department said, ‘Visa demand is cyclical, not uniform throughout the year and affected by various factors at the local and international level. Visa issuance number tend to increase during peak travel seasons, such as during the summer and the winter holidays, through there may be different trends at the country, nationality, or visa-category level.’
