As the US gets tougher with visas, the prayers of US-bound devotees in India are getting more fervent, and their purse strings looser. Called Visa Hanuman temples (there are half a dozen all over India), some of them ask for a 'fee'.
With Indo-US bonhomie at its best, the US is all set to grant entry visas to a record number of Indians in the months to come.
'When your own government asks for your name and address there is a massive revolution saying it's intrusion in privacy'
There are very few people in the world who qualify to be called a living legend. Astad Deboo is one of them.
Amidst a raging controversy over the funding of the visit of three members of the US Congress, who have spoken for an American visa for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Congressmen rejected allegations questioning the legitimacy of their trip.
After Brazil and China, a recently launched pilot program to waive off interview for an American visa is gaining popularity in India as the US Government intends to target the country to increase tourist flow in the years to come.
The new rules will apply to those within categories of B1, B2, C and D.
Modi, whose US visa was revoked at the level of the consul general in 2005 over his alleged role in the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat, was sought after by US diplomats owing to his fast rising stature in national politics, a WikiLeaks cable accessed by The Hindu newspaper said.
In 1929, Rabindranath Tagore was so troubled when he applied for an American visa that he cancelled his lecture tour and returned to India, the historian Ronald Takaki often said.
The selection of a woman Senator with an Indian background as the Democratic party's vice-presidential nominee should normally be a matter of elation in India, especially for those who boast of their nationalistic credentials such as the BJP followers, notes Amulya Ganguli.
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"We said he (Modi) is free to apply for a visa, and we'll make a decision based on the process that we have in place here," State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf told media persons at her daily news conference.
Complete authoritative information on the subject of visa application was available at the website www.newdelhi.usembassy.gov.
Modi was denied visa by the US government in March 2005 in the wake of the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
In the wake of heightened security measures at airports in Britain and the US after a terrorist attack was foiled in London, Kolkatans are still undaunted and as agog about visiting the American shores as always.
'Can't make Munnabhai Chale Amerika kyunki mere ko American visa nahi milta hai, toh Amerika cancel hai.'
Bharatiya Janata party leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday met visiting United States Vice President Joe Biden and raised the issue of visa to skilled workers but refrained from discussing the lifting of ban on American visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Islamabad refused to take back its citizen deportees and visa over-stayers from America
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which had so far maintained that it was not unduly bothered about denial of American visa to Narendra Modi, said it will appeal to the US Administration to lift the travel ban on him.
A US-based Sikh rights group has filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act seeking documents relating to the Obama administration's decision to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a meeting at the White House in September.
Continuing to maintain silence on granting a visa to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi, United States has said the heads of state and government are eligible for A1 visas and no individual automatically qualifies for an American visa.
The nine-year American visa ban on Narendra Modi will automatically be lifted and he would enjoy diplomatic immunity if the Bharatiya Janata Party leader becomes the prime minister of India, according to a Congressional report.
A top American official has opposed grant of visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi because of the "very serious" doubts that remain over his role in the "horrific" 2002 riots in the state.
'What was predictable, but entirely missed by Modi's strident critics, is that the excessive and intemperate demonisation of Modi allowed him to assume his own metaphor -- the underdog, the martyr, the marginalised,' says Dr Aseem Shukla.
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