Indian Arrivals to the U.S. Slip… Again
Photo Credit: Exterior of the White House in Washington, D.C. Adobe Stock / Orhan Çam
Skift Take
U.S. visa wait times for Indians are finally shrinking, that's great news. But if those long lines were always blamed on “overwhelming demand,” one would have to ask: did wait times drop because the demand did too?
Indian travel to the United States fell again in October, according to the latest data from the National Travel & Tourism Office, part of the U.S. Commerce Department. Provisional figures show a 7% drop in arrivals from India compared with October 2024. The U.S. recorded 143,640 Indian arrivals in October, marking the fifth straight month of decline.
From January through October 2025, the U.S. welcomed 1.79 million Indian visitors, this was down 5% from the same period in 2024. Just last year, India sent 2.2 million visitors to the U.S. and was the second-largest inbound market after the UK (excluding Canada and Mexico). In October, India slipped to seventh place, after ranking fourth in September.
The recent drops are not tiny blips, they are a pattern. Arrivals fell 8% in June, 6% in July, 15% in August, 11% in September, and now 7% in October. A year ago, the story looked very different. In 2024, those same months posted strong growth over 2023: June was
