On June 21 (local time), people familiar with the immigration sector in the US said in a statement to Reuters that the Biden administration is planning to make it easier for the Indians to live and work in the United States. The update came at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on an official state visit to the US. The US government’s decision will help some skilled workers enter or remain in the country.
The announcement may come by June 22 that a small number of Indians and other foreign workers with H-1B visas will be able to renew them in the US without travelling abroad. As per Reuters’ sources, it is part of a pilot project that may see expansion in the coming years.
Exclusive: The Biden administration will make it easier for Indians to live and work in the United States, using this week's state visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help some skilled workers enter or remain in the country https://t.co/GhlOxE9BWC
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 22, 2023
Notably, Indian citizens are the most active H-1B program users. Around 4,42,000 H-1B workers from India were reportedly in the US in the previous fiscal year, which makes 73 percent of the total H-1B visa holders. A US official said, “We all recognise that mobility of our people is a huge asset to us, and so our goal is to approach that in a sort of multifaceted way. The State Department has already been working hard to find creative ways to change things.”
Bloomberg Law first reported the pilot program in February this year. While declining to comment on the details of the program, a State Department spokesperson told Reuters, “The pilot would begin with a small number of cases with the intention to scale the initiative over the following one to two years.” Another spokesperson added that renewing visas in the US would reduce the burden on the consulates abroad for visa interviews.
Another source informed Reuters that the pilot program will also include some workers on L-1 visas. It is available to people who are transferring within a company to a position in the US.
Every year, the US government makes 65,000 H-1B visas available to companies that seek skilled foreign workers. In addition to that, 20,000 visas are made available for workers with advanced degrees. These visas are valid for three years with a possibility of three-year renewal. In recent times, Indian-based Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services along with Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta are the top companies that bring skilled workers on H-1B visas.
As part of the proposed pilot program, the US Government is running an initiative to clear a backlog of visa applications at the US embassies in India. According to one of the Reuters sources, the matter is expected to be discussed between the US and Indian delegations in Washington during this week.
India has expressed concerns over the difficulties faced by Indian citizens to get visas to live in the US. Some of the H-1B visa holders in the US are among the thousands of workers in the tech industry that were laid off this year. In order to stay in the US, they have a 60-day window to find a new employer or head back home country.
As per reports, the Biden administration has worked for months to improve visa access for Indians in an attempt to knit together the two largest democracies. Also, it will provide a way to better compete with China. However, Congress’s lack of political will to comprehensively reform US immigration policy remained a challenge in the last few months.
A backlog was created after Washington halted almost all visa processing worldwide in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The US visa services are trying to clear that backlog that has led to some families being separated for an extended period of time.
As per the labour department, there were 10 million job openings in the US by the end of April this year.
