No plans of Consulate in Vijayawada: US

A day of extensive media reports of US consulate agreeing for opening a new facility in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, US consulate has released a press release condemning the news. The consulate affirmed that there are no plans to open any new U.S. government facilities in India at this time. The speculations have started after the meeting of Puneet Talwar, the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister requested Mr.Talwar to consider opening the consulate in Vijayawada and Talwar agreed to consider the option. However experts say as the US Consulate already exists in Hyderabad, the country may not have one more at such close distance. There is no consulate facility to Bangalore despite having biggest IT exports in the country due to the close proximity to Chennai and Hyderabad.

The current US Consulate in Hyderabad also processes only non immigrant visas. It now provides consular services in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Orissa. It processes applications only for non immigrant visas. Those are the visas for people visiting the United State temporarily for tourism, business, education, medical treatment, or petition-based employment.