Hours before leaving for home to take up a new assignment, US Ambassador to India Robert D Blackwill on Wednesday assured Indians that visas are issued to most of the applicants here irrespective of the new stricter regulations.

In a farewell message to Indians through the media, Blackwill said the people-to-people contacts between India and the US were 'extraordinary' and democratic values in both the nations were respected by each other.

"The number of visas issued has not diminished. Seventy per cent of the applicants get the visa. This was true before September 11 (2001) and this is true now," he told reporters in Delhi refusing to take any questions.

During the last two years 600,000 visas have been issued to Indians, he said, adding a lot of Indians were currently studying in the US.

Blackwill said when he came to India, he saw long queues with people waiting in heat and rains for hours.

Asserting that the visa-issuing process had changed considerably since he joined his assignment in India two years back, Blackwill said, "It is more dignified process now."