 The US Embassy in India recently conducted their Facebook live event and in this event they shared some important updates about availability of slots for the student visas, for the B1, B2 visas as well as for the work, EDGE and LVISA. So in this video I'm going to be sharing all these updates with you and also my analysis of the same. So keep on watching. Hi guys, my name is Shachi and I'm a travel and visa coach. On this channel you will find lots of useful videos on the US visa process. We have separate playlists for FVISA, for JVISA, for B1, B2 and for the LVISA. We also have new videos coming up for all of these categories so make sure that you subscribe and stay tuned. So after listening and analyzing the Facebook live we have classified all the updates that were shared into five categories. So in this video I'm going to take you through each of these categories and share the insights with you. We also have a full transcript of the event. So in case you missed attending the event and want to know what exactly happened we have the entire transcript so do check the link in the description box for that. So with this let's get started. So let's start with the first category of visas and this is the student visa that is the F, J and M and I know that this is a category which most of you have been waiting for. So the biggest insight shared by the embassy for the student visa category is that the opening of slot is going to follow the same pattern which they used for the fall 22 intake which means that the slots are going to open in two bulk tranches. So the first one will be sometime between 10th to 15th of October and the second one will be sometime between 10th to 15th of November. In fact just last week we had a video on this channel for starting the spring 23 prep and this is exactly what we predicted in that video that the slots are going to start opening in October. So many of you I know are waiting for the visa slots it's now a matter of just a few more days so make sure that you fill your DS164 you pay your visa fee and just get really active and start tracking the system for the slots. The second update in this category is for people with a prior rejection. Now here the embassy shared that again they are going to follow the same pattern which they used for the fall 22 intake. This means that the slots for people with a prior previous rejection will open sometime after the two bulk openings are done. So we can expect slots for people with a previous rejection to open sometime towards the end of November. I know that if you have a previous rejection the wait gets a little bit longer it can be frustrating but just focus on your preparation right now because these slots will open up eventually they did for the fall intake as well so do not worry too much about availability of slots focus on your preparation and keep tracking the system really really closely. For the spring 23 intake we have a detailed preparation plan. This is the 7 day program and this starts from analyzing your profile filling your DS164 to a one-to-one session and multiple mocks. So some of you have already enrolled for this program so if you're looking for a stress-free way to smash that visa interview then do check the link for this program in the description box below. The second category that we're going to talk about is the H and visa and if it's going to become really easy for people looking for visas in these two categories because the embassy shared that they are going to release 100,000 slots for the HLN visas in the month of October. So if you are looking to give your H1B interview your L1A L1B interview then it's again time to get up for booking these slots so do fill your DS164 pay your visa fee and right from the first week of October itself start monitoring and tracking the system because these 100,000 slots are going to be released in the month of October of course they're going to be spread out the appointments are going to be spread out over the next two to three months but you will be able to book and catch these appointments in October itself. Just a few days back we had a video on L1B interview experiences and this video covered all the recent L1 interview experience for the month of September so do check out this video to understand what are the recent trends and pattern of questions for the L visas and for a more detailed prep you can also reach out to me for a one-to-one session. If you're still here still watching the video do give this video a thumbs up and comment US visa slots below so that I know that you're still here. The third category of updates that we're going to cover is really important and this is all the changes that is coming up in the CGI portal that is in the portal where you book your visa slot and here they shared three important changes which are going to be implemented really soon. First one is that the number of reschedules are going to be reduced so as of now once you book your visa slot the system allows you to reschedule your appointment up to four times and in the Facebook live event they shared that they're going to drop one of these so the number of reschedules is going to drop to from four to three which means that once you book your appointment you will now be able to reschedule that appointment only three more times. The second update was about the placeholder slots now placeholder is a concept where you basically book a dummy appointment and use that to request for an emergency or an expirated appointment. Now in the Facebook live event they shared that they are doing away with the placeholders there are no dummy appointments and all the appointments that you see on the system are now real appointments which means that they are actual interview appointments they're not something which are going to get cancelled they are not placeholder. To be honest it's a little hard to believe this because right now on the system we can see appointments even up till the year 24 so are the appointments being given out in 2024 real interview appointments well we'll have to wait and watch on this one and the third important update about the system changes is about the Dropbox appointment so as of now if you qualify for a Dropbox there is no way in which you can expedite that and a typical Dropbox process takes anywhere between four to six weeks so the embassy shared that they are introducing a new feature where you will be able to expedite the Dropbox appointment that you have by requesting for an in-person process which means that even if you qualify for a Dropbox but you want to get the process done faster you can request for an in-person appointment go meet the visa officer answer the questions and get your visa process done in a faster way so these are the changes in the system and all of these are again going to be implemented in the month of October. The next category that we're going to talk about are the B1 B2 visas and the J visas now for the B1 B2 visas they did not share any clear timeline or any clear release of slots and they stated very clearly that right now the focus is going to be on H and L visas followed by B1 B2 visa however in the last two months we have seen a significant increase in number of appointments which are being given for the B1 B2 category and almost every day we see interviews being conducted for the B1 B2 visa which means that they are being released regularly into the system so again as far as B1 B2 visas are concerned it's all just comes down to tracking and monitoring the system so if you want to know some special tips and hacks as to how to catch these B1 B2 appointments do check out this video because this video is a very detailed guide on how you can monitor the system and book a B1 B2 appointment for yourself. Another thing I would like to share is that for the B1 B2 category whatever dates you're getting be it 22, 23 or 24 just go ahead and book that because once you have an interview date booked it becomes much more easier to reschedule it to an earlier date. Coming to the J visas now again there's happy news for people looking for the J visas because they shared that they're giving more importance to J visas in the coming year and they will be looking to release the slots for the J visas on a weekly basis rather than monthly or ad hoc bulk openings so if you're looking for a J visa category this weekly release of slots will definitely make life much easier and make it simpler for you to get that visa appointment. The fifth category of updates is I think one of the most frequently asked questions and something which is being discussed extensively in all the media as well and that is what are the timelines we can expect for the embassy to become normal. So a lot of viewers had this question that when do we see the wait times going away when do we get to the stage where we will just be able to log into a system and book appointment like we used to do in the pre-COVID era. Well for this they shared that they currently at 75% capacity not still at 100% still at 75% capacity and in the coming few months they are looking to add more consular officers increase the size of the team and within the next one year they hope to get back to normal functioning where the wait times will not be as absurd as that is now. Well this remains to be seen again how things pan out but definitely over the last few months we have seen much better traction for all visa category not just for the student visa but for H1N B1 B2J and even the other categories as well. So if you're looking to travel to the US in the next one year now is a great time to start your US visa process because the next two to three months is where we see the traction picking up significantly and increased chance of you getting that visa appointment and the US visa. So these are the five big category updates and like I mentioned earlier for a full transcript of the Facebook live event do check the link in the description box below you'll be able to download that PDF and read about the entire event. If you have any more questions feel free to leave them in the comments section below you can also DM me on Instagram my Instagram handle is at shachi.mull and to make your preparation process much more smoother we have a ton of free resources as well and these free resources range from document checklist to D-day checklist to interview question banks and a lot of you have used it and found it really useful so make sure to check it out. That's all for this video thank you so much for watching and all the updates are going to be tracked really closely and brought here right on this channel especially about availability of slots so do stay tuned for that. If you're a student looking for the spring 23 and take definitely check out this playlist that we have exclusively for the spring 2023 and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.