kolkata a senior us diplomat on sunday assured students who have secured admission in american universities that the us mission in india will accommodate as many visa applicants as possible in july and august to facilitate their travel to the country the embassy will start giving visa interview slots to indian students from monday student visa applicants with a cancelled appointment will need to make a new onethe visa service other than for emergency travel has been shut since april 28 we intend to start an intensive two months of interviewing student visa applicants on july 1 we will plan to open as many appointments as we can safely accommodate based on local pandemic conditions across india student visa applicants do not need an expedited appointment to schedule their interview on june 14 we will open july and august appointments for students us embassy minister counsellor for consular affairs don heflin said on sundaywhile assuring students that the us embassy and regional consulates will do everything possible to ensure students with valid travel requirements were not deprived of the opportunity he clarified that usbound students will not require any proof of covid19 vaccination to enter the country they will only need a negative report of their covid19 test taken within 72 hours prior to their departure he saidthat will come as a huge relief to nearly 2 lakh students who travel to the us for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes annually including a few thousand from kolkata even last year when the us recorded a 43 decline in new foreign students over half the new ones were from india and china in the facebook live interaction that heflin had conducted on thursday to address questions from usbound indian students more than 16000 people had participated including many from kolkata among the most frequently asked questions was when slots for visa applications would open and whether students will have to be fully vaccinated at the time of departure however helfin pointed out that individual institutions may set their own requirement for vaccination and advised students to consult with the host institution to ensure compliance the us education system operates independently from the federal government there are more than 4500 accredited universities in the us that operate autonomously and the policy adopted by one school for its students and teaching community may not be the same as that for another one he saidbengal has relaxed the minimum time gap between two shots and named foreignbound students on the priority list apart from new students heflin clarified that students returning to academic programmes that resume on or after august 1 will be allowed to travel to the us up to 30 days before the programmes restart we recommend continuing students discuss specific resumption plans with their respective universities to develop a travel timeline heflin saidvisa will however not be issued to parents or guardians at present as tourist visa remains prohibited following a presidential proclamation