GCCI demands US visa centre in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( GCCI) today demanded opening of a US visa centre here, citing the growing percentage of business travellers from the state who fly to the US.

The request was made before Michael Oskin (Vice Consul US, Consulate General, Mumbai) who interacted with the office-bearers of the body here.

"Gujarat is the manufacturing hub of India, having nearly 3.3 lakh small and medium registered units. Though nearly 30 per cent of business travellers to US are from Gujarat, we don't have a visa centre here. Even our Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pitched for such centre here when he was chief minister of Gujarat," said Bhagyesh Soneji, chairperson of GCCI's Foreign Trade Committee.

Currently, travellers from Gujarat are required to go to Mumbai for completing visa-related formalities, which is time-consuming.

Apart from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad have the visa centres.

In his response, Oskin stated that US authorities have already received such requests in the past.

"To start a visa centre is a time-consuming process. This is not the first time that we have came across such a request. I will definitely forward this suggestion to our authorities," the envoy said.