Reforming the ‘long-broken’ US immigration system has been one of the foremost agendas of the Biden-Harris administration. The President vowed to establish a ‘fair and orderly’ immigration law that not only welcomes legal immigrants, but also keeps their families together and allows them to contribute more to the country in the long run.

PC: Image by Freepik

On 4 February, the US Senate introduced the bipartisan National Security Agreement with reform measures aligned to President Joe Biden’s vision for a fair immigration law in America. The bill not only addresses border security concerns caused by illegal immigration, but also seeks to expedite work permits to eligible H4 visa holders, introduce ageing-out protection for children of H1B visa professionals, and increase the cap on the number of Green Cards issued annually. The bill finds strong support at the White House as the Biden-Harris administration urges the Congress to pass the bill immediately.

The National Security Agreement, if passed into law, will benefit one lakh skilled H4 dependents – spouses and children of certain long-term H1-B visa holders – looking for employment in the US. At present, H4 visa holders are required to obtain a work permit, Employment Authorization Document (EAD), to work in the US. This process takes 6-12 months or longer, because of which many miss out on the employment opportunity.

To address this, the bipartisan bill proposed automatic work permits to 100,000 H4 dependents of H1B visa holders who have completed their immigration visa petitions. This would eliminate the need to apply and wait for EAD approval to seek employment in the US, thus allowing skilled dependents ‘to contribute more fully to the country’. It, in turn, is a relief to over 250,000 H-4 dependent children as they will have a legal right to stay and work in the US temporarily even if they age out during the immigration process. However, the benefit applies to those who accompanied their parents as children and stayed in the US for at least 8 years before they turned 21 years old.

The Senate bill also propounds significant measures to clear the massive Green Card backlog, which has become a challenge for both applicants and USCIS officials alike. It seeks to increase the number of Green Cards (Permanent Resident Card) issued every year, thus effectively getting to the root of the backlog.

An increase of the annual limit of 1,40,000 employment-based green cards to 1,58,000 for the next five years would benefit a total of 90,000 employment-based green card seekers. Of the proposed 250,000 additional green cards over the next five years; 1,60,000 family-based green cards would facilitate lawful pathways to citizenship and ‘keep families together’. To further support family reunions, the bill includes a provision for certain noncitizens’ travel to the US on a temporary visitor visa (B visa) to meet their family members.

Additionally, 25,000 K-1, K-2, and K-3 visa holders (foreign-citizen fiancé of a US citizen, children of foreign-citizen fiancé, and foreign-citizen spouse of a US citizen respectively) are among the eligible beneficiaries of the automatic work authorization.

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The United States is set on modernizing the H1-B visa program with a slew of new reforms, including digital upgrades to the e-registration system. Ahead of the opening of the online filing period for H-1B registrations for fiscal 2025, the USCIS announced new measures to streamline the H1B visa application process, with effect from February 2024.

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As part of the new changes, the H-1B e-registration platform will feature new ‘organizational accounts’ in addition to the two types of online USCIS accounts – registrant account and representative/attorney account – for submitting H-1B registrations. The new feature will facilitate collaboration between multiple individuals working for the same organization (a company or business entity) and their legal representatives in preparing and submitting H1B registrations for prospective beneficiaries. A registrant account can be upgraded to form a company group, and all authorized members may join the organization’s group upon receiving invitation.

The coordination between the group of people authorized by the employer and their attorneys/accredited representatives will help prevent duplicate submissions for the same beneficiary. Thus, the ‘organizational accounts’ feature, besides simplifying the registration process for employers, addresses concerns regarding overrepresentation in H-1B visa registrations. For years, the H1-B lottery system has been plagued by multiple registrations for a single beneficiary to amplify their chance of selection.

As per the changes in the H1B visa application process, the USCIS is going to start online filing of H1B visas (USCIS lockbox) and allow petitioners or their legal representatives to file H1-B petitions online and also submit requests for premium processing through the online portal. At present, both Form I-129 (Petition for a Non-immigrant Worker) and Form I-907 (Request for Premium Processing Service) are typically filed at a USCIS service centre. With this transition from offline filing to online filing, the H1-B petition process becomes paperless, right from registration to processing to selection.

Online filing of H-1B petitions will be introduced as an alternate option to paper-based filing. Thus, employers may choose to file H-1B petitions themselves through organizational accounts or have it filed online by a legal representative on their behalf or go for the traditional method of filing Forms I-129 and I-907 at the direct filing address. However, the H1-B registration is an online-only process.

This announcement regarding online H-1B petition filing came a few weeks after USCIS hiked the premium processing fee for H1-B and other visas. The new fee structure to be effective from February 26 will cost sponsoring employers $2,805, a 12% hike on the previous $2500, to avail premium processing service for an H1-B petition (Form I-129). Additionally, USCIS proposed a massive visa fee hike for various categories, including H1-B. It proposed to increase the H-1B registration fee to $215 from current $10 and the Form I-129 fee to $780 from present $460.

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“PM Modi himself had announced the White House’s decision to renew certain non-immigrant visas, including H1B, within the US while addressing the Indian Diaspora gathering in Washington DC during his first state visit in June this year. A thundering applause followed the announcement,” said Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats.

Officially, the United States is all set to start a pilot trial for domestic H1B visa renewal in January 2024, with the presidential approval, after announcing its move to issue paperless visas. Undoubtedly, resumption of the domestic US visa renewal service, which was in place until 2004, will benefit Indian techies on H1B. The much-awaited pilot program will begin in January with the first lot of 20,000 H1B visa renewals, a majority of which is for Indian nationals in the US.

However, the pilot program does not include H4 visa holders, the dependents of H1B visa professionals in America. Speculations are rife that success of the pilot trial would enable spouses and children of H1B workers to renew their H4 visas within the US later in 2024.

Who are eligible for H1B Visa Renewal in USA?

The pilot program for H1B domestic visa renewal will be launched at the Canadian and Indian Consulates in the United States in January 2024. Who among the Canadian and Indian H1B visa holders are eligible for the program at the pilot stage? You must have valid H1B status, an unexpired petition for renewal, and fingerprints on file with the Department of State among the eligibility criteria for H1B visa renewal in the US. At the same time, you must be qualified for an in-person interview waiver. You can participate in the pilot program only if your H1B visa was issued between February 1 and September 30, 2021 by the US Embassy or a US Consulate in India. Your application for the pilot program does not require residence proof in America.

The pilot program application window for H1B visa renewal stamping in USA will open on 29 January 2024 and will close on or before 1 April 2024 depending on the availability of slots.

What is the application fee for H1B visa domestic renewal in the States?

The application fee is $205. The fee is non-refundable and non-transferable. 6 to 8 weeks is the approximate processing time for your employment visa renewal in the USA.

America’s New Year Gift to Indians 

May Deepavali become a federal holiday in the US or not; once the stamping of H1B visas within the US is resumed, this will surely be the best gift of the year to Indians. The resumption of H1B visa stamping in the US was unanimously recommended in October 2022 by the US President’s advisory commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). Indian American Ajay Jain Bhutoria, an entrepreneur in the San Francisco Bay Area and a member of the AAPI National Leadership Council, was the driving force behind this recommendation in the White House.

“Indians are the largest skilled group of workers in the United States. We hope that India will benefit quite a bit from this program and it will prevent Indians from having to travel back to India or anywhere for a visa appointment to get their visas renewed. It will allow our missions in India to concentrate on new applicants,” said Julie Stufft, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services.

H1B visa renewal stamping in India continues to have been a nightmare for lakhs of Indians since the onset of the pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of H1B visa holders got stuck in India due to the pandemic-induced closure of US Embassy and consulates. Currently, the nightmare drags on over the US visa renewal appointment delays in India. This affects Indian families and causes their separation. Over 800 days is the visa interview wait time at the US Embassy and Consulates in India. Many Indians on H1B visa lost their US jobs as they could not travel back without visa stamping during the pandemic.

Another movement is gaining momentum for H1B visa holders

Resumption of domestic stamping for H1B visa renewals in USA has more to it. The Presidential commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders would like USCIS to update its visa stamping policy, which was done many years ago but it was not honored. It is also recommended that H1B visa holders should be provided with advanced travel documents so that they don’t get stuck back home and can re-enter the US on an expired visa.

If H1B visa holders are given advanced travel documents, they may be able to travel to India via Europe without a transit visa. As of today, if your US visa has expired, you need a transit visa to travel to India from USA via Europe. Traveling through the Middle East on an expired US visa does not have any transit visa requirement. Given advanced travel documents, you will be able to choose a round-trip flight between USA and India over two one-way flights. Usually, round-trip flights to India cost lesser than two one-way flights booked separately. Without worrying about visa stamping in India and needing a transit visa for Europe, you will be able to visit your parents and attend to their medical needs back home.

Domestic US Visa renewal promises to ease travel for Indians

The presidential approval to resumption of H1B visa renewal service in America promises a host of benefits, including enhanced ease of travel between USA and India. This is a most pressing need of the hour in view of the understaffed US Embassy and Consulates, India struggling to clear the visa backlogs that have built up over the past two years of the pandemic. It is draining financially and mentally those who traveled to India for unprecedented reasons such as family emergency, and in the hope of getting their visa renewal applications processed during a definite period of stay. They end up paying a fare difference for rescheduling their flights more than once, which costs them additional hundreds of dollars each time, due to the US visa processing delays in India.

“This is when an open ticket comes in handy. Keeping your flight tickets in open status is cheaper and better than rescheduling your reservation and paying a fare difference twice or thrice. Once your return travel date is confirmed, you can use the open ticket by paying a fare difference (if any) and certain fees (as per the airline policy) within 6 to 12 months from the date of original booking. We recommend open-ended air tickets to our customers without certain return travel dates,” said the chief ticketing officer of IndianEagle.com, a leading travel-booking partner of Indians in America.

Also Check: Save more than $1000 on traveling to India from USA this Holiday season

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It will cost US visa seekers dearly to fulfil their American Dreams in the near future, as USCIS’ proposed visa fee hikes are likely to be effective in early 2024 for H1B, L, O, and EB5 categories. The visa fee hike proposal will also impact applicants seeking employment authorization, US citizenship, and green card status adjustment. Only the USCIS fees for premium processing of visas in all categories will remain unaffected; however, the premium processing timeline will increase from 15 calendar days to 15 business days as proposed by USCIS.

EB5 – the Golden Visa that ensures the fastest route to earning a Green Card – will cost foreign investors and entrepreneurs 204 times more than its current fees. Once USCIS’ visa fee hike proposal is approved, an EB5 visa will cost $11,160 instead of $3,675. This will surely be another setback to EB5 visa seekers, since the investment cap has been raised from $500,000 to a minimum $800,000.

The proposed H1B visa fee hike is, undoubtedly, not a fair surprise to H1B visa sponsors. The US employers hiring high-skilled foreign workers will have to shell out $780, a 70% hike on $460 per application. Moreover, the H1B pre-registration fee is to get a steep hike by 2050% – from a meagre $10 to a whopping $215. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency reasons that they sought a significant hike in the H1B pre-registration fee based on a review of the increasing cost of managing the H1B registration system.

In its US visa fee hike proposal, USCIS sought a 201% increase from $460 to $1385 for an L1 visa, a non-immigrant visa for intra-company transfer. The O1 visa fee is likely to go up by 129%. O1, a visa for non-immigrant individuals with extraordinary ability or achievements, is one of the few options that highly-accomplished STEM professionals on H1B can switch to during the 60-day grace period following a layoff. They may find this option a deterrent in the event of the O1 visa fee increase.

Justifying the H1B, EB5, L1 and other visa fee hikes, USCIS said that the revision of the current visa fee schedule is a pressing need of the hour to meet the agency’s operating overheads, especially in view of the pandemic-hit revenue. The agency’s revenue plummeted by 40% during the pandemic – which resulted in freezing the hiring process and reducing the workforce, thereby affecting the capacity to clear backlogs. USCIS’ annual revenue is expected to rise from $3.28 billion to $5.2 billion if the latest revision of the visa fees is approved. The estimated revenue increase will help USCIS prevent the mounting of visa backlogs, upgrade the technological infrastructure, and augment the legal immigration system.

USCIS also proposed eliminating separate biometric services fee. At the same time, USCIS assured that the visa hike proposal would not impact the existing fee waiver eligibility norms for low-income groups. The agency also sought to introduce fee exemptions for visa applicants in the ‘humanitarian programs’ category.

The US visa hike proposal includes plans to introduce a new ‘Asylum Program Fee’ which will be levied on the employers filing Form I-129 (a petition for non-immigrant workers) and Form I-140 (a petition for employment-based LPR) for their foreign employees. The Asylum Program Fee, $600, will help the agency afford the expenses of administering the asylum programs.

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The United States’ H-1B program, a passage to the land of American Dream for foreign professionals, has been awaiting reforms since the Biden-Harris administration was formed. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is now inching towards working on the reforms. Being the biggest beneficiary of this employment-based visa, Indians, more than anyone else, might greatly be impacted by an overhaul of the H-1B visa system if it takes effect.

The USCIS proposed a new rule to modernize the H-1B visa system, amending some of its regulations concerning H-1B specialty occupations and its current beneficiaries as well as international students on F1 visa awaiting change of status to H-1B for employment. USCIS’ proposal primarily seeks to revise ‘employer-employee relationship’ for H-1B program, provide greater flexibility for startup entrepreneurs, update site visit guidelines (site visits refer to immigration officers’ unannounced arrival at workplace to cross-verify the employment of foreign employees and prevent immigration fraud), address cap-gap issues for F1 students, and foolproof H-1B cap e-registration system.

Employer-employee Relationship for H1B Petition Approval

At present, the ‘employer-employee relationship’ is determined by the sponsor’s ability ‘to hire, pay, fire, supervise, or otherwise control the work of the employee’. Establishing a valid employee-employer relationship by submitting necessary proofs is crucial for approval of the H-1B petition. Redefining what constitutes an employer-employee relationship can possibly shift the ground for approval/denial of the H-1B petitions. Also, regulations related to establishing this relationship when a supervisor places his/her H-1B employee at a third party establishment were changed recently, and require both parties to file H-1B petitions in such cases.

Cap-Gap Extension for F1 Students in USA 

Other than the 65,000 H-1B visas issued by the US annually, an additional 20,000 visas are allotted for students graduating from American universities. Indian students on F1 visas who sign up for a standard 12-month optional practical training (OPT) post completion of their advanced degree are among the beneficiaries of this F1 status upgrade. This temporary employment usually opens the door for H-1B sponsorship, with the organizations who wish to employ their OPT candidates by sponsoring them for H-1B visas.

The period between the expiry of their F1 status/OPT employment authorization and the start of H-1B status is referred to as the ‘cap gap’. When the employers file H-1B petitions for these candidates during the H-1B filing season (which typically starts in April) for the following fiscal year, these F1 students or OPT candidates with pending/approved H-1B petition qualify for cap-gap extension, which is extension of F1 status/employment authorization until the start of fiscal year (Oct 1). However, if the petition isn’t processed, then such candidates are disentitled to work in the new fiscal year. This delay in processing H-1B requests continues to affect eligible students and the new rule is likely to resolve this issue, which would benefit over 2,00,000 Indian students looking forward to settling in USA after their education.

H-1B e-Registration System & Lottery Selection

Online registrations for H-1B visas are exponentially higher than what the US approves in accordance with the annual cap set on H-1B visas (65,000). To select applicants for further processing from this pool of registrations, the USCIS randomly picks them on a lottery basis. This aggressive competition for the most sought-after work visa seemed to have made way for visa fraud as employers resorted to submitting multiple online registrations for one beneficiary to maximize his/her chances of selection in the H-1B lottery. USCIS, having suspected gaming of the system, is planning to overhaul the procedure to remove these loopholes and prevent misuse of the H1B visa system.

USCIS’ proposed rule for H-1B reform is currently under review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within the Executive Office of the President. Its implementation is still a long way ahead, several months to be specific. Reportedly, it will be published in the Federal Register in December 2023 and public opinions will be collected in the following 30-60 day public comment period. If finalized, the new rule will come into force just in time for the upcoming H-1B cap filing season in April 2024. Interestingly, some aspects of the USCIS’ new rule to reform the H-1B program were a part of the Biden administration’s first bi-annual agenda announced in June 2021.

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If you are on H1B visa, you must be wondering, sometimes, how to extend your H1B status after the maximum period of 6 years or whether you can extend your stay in the US after 6 years of valid H1B status. Yes, you can do that without accruing visa overstay or incurring a penalty. The H1B visa recapture rule is one of the few secrets that you should have knowledge of.

Generally, an H1B visa holder is entitled to not more than 6 years of stay in the United States. Initially, the much coveted H1B visa is issued to non-immigrants for 3 years, which is extendable only for another 3 years. the expiration of your H1B status on completion of six years requires you leave the US and bars you from re-entry into the country for at least one year.

Picture Credit: APNLive.com

However, the H1B visa recapture rule can help you bypass this restriction. Most probably, you don’t know that the period of your stay on H1B visa includes only the days you spend physically in the US, not your holidays outside of the US during this time. Precisely, any trip exceeding 24 hours outside of the US border, irrespective of the purpose, is excluded from the period of 6 years in the US while you have valid visa status, according to the H1B visa rules.

The time spent in any part of the world other than the USA during the valid H1B period is called ‘recapturing’ time. The time you don’t spend in the US during this period is called the ‘unused’ time. You can reclaim this time to extend your visa status beyond the usually permissible length of stay in the US. Whenever you travel to India for a few days, a few weeks, or a month or two while holding a valid H1B visa, the clock stops for the time spent in India and this does not count towards the H1B period of 6 years.

Interestingly, the H1B visa recapture rule does not need you to state or explain your purpose of traveling and spending some time outside of the US. Any time (more than 24 hours at a stretch) spent outside of the US, whether for a family vacation or a business trip, can be recaptured and added back to your valid period of stay in the US through a petition. Now you must be keen to know how.

Now you must be keen to know how to file an H1B extension petition to recapture the ‘unused’ time. Though the onus of providing documentary proof for the time spent abroad falls on you, it is your employer who is required to file an H1B visa recapture petition to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The documents you should provide to help your employer prove that you have physically spent a period of time outside of the US are:

• Copies of your international flight tickets and boarding passes
• Copies of the passport page with stamps given at the airport(s) outside of the US
• Copies of your I-94 card with arrival and departure records

“It is obvious that you should not lose your boarding passes for international flights to India or other destination. You should keep the boarding passes and flight tickets to India safe as these are part of the documentary evidence for your time spent in India or some other place outside of the US border,” said Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats, a leading Indian Diaspora portal by Indian Eagle Travel.

Will I receive a Request for Evidence from USCIS if my H1B extension petition fails to recapture ‘unused’ time or the documents provided are inadequate for my claim to have spent days outside of USA?

No. USCIS does not send a request for evidence to H1B visa holders whose petitions to recapture the visa time spent abroad are not approved due to inadequate documents.

Will I be charged of H1B visa overstay if I stay in the USA for the recaptured days added back to my H1B period of time?

No. There is no such risk as visa overstay in this case. The H1B visa recapture rule authorizes you to extend your visa status for the days you spend outside of the US during the 6-year visa term. It is absolutely legitimate.

What about my dependents on H4 visa if my stay on H1B is extended through a petition for H1B visa recapture unused time?

Your dependents on H4 visa, spouse and children, are also eligible for the extension by the same period of time that you get added to your visa status.

Celebrating the freedom of travel, we are offering flight discount coupons for our newsletter subscribers and customers. You can use the coupon code and get $25 OFF on booking flight tickets through IndianEagle.com for solo travel, family travel, your parents’ travel between India and USA before or after July 31. The discount offer is valid until July 31, 2023.

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The season of layoff that Elon Musk started with the downsizing of employees after his takeover of Twitter has spiraled out of control to impact over 91,000 tech workers including non-immigrants on H1B and other visas in the US so far. Reportedly, the layoff season will extend into the New Year 2023 and turn many American Dreams into nightmares. The laid-off H1B visa holders and others are nearing their 60-day stay deadline in America. With thousands of non-immigrants at this juncture, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services has come up with some lawful options for laid-off non-immigrants to continue their stay in the US.

Have you been served the layoff notice at your current job recently? Get into an open talk with your employer or the HR manager and negotiate for a less severance package so that the last few days of your employment in the current organization can be extended. The longer you can manage to stay employed, the more time you will get to look for another job during the layoff season in the US.

PC: Cnbctv18.com

Adjusting your H1B visa status to a H4 is one of the surest ways to continue staying even after the layoff in the US. That’s possible only if both you and your spouse are H1B visa holders. You will get another chance to relive your American Dream while staying as a dependent of your spouse.

You can switch to O-1 in the “extraordinary ability” category during the 60-day grace period following the termination of your employment on H1B, if you meet the eligibility criteria for an O-1 visa. O-1A/B is a non-immigrant US visa for individuals who have extraordinary ability or achievements in the sciences, arts, education, business, sports, cinema and television. If you are a highly qualified STEM professional, you may qualify for an O-1A visa in the field of sciences. A good lawyer can help you determine your eligibility. Then you can go the ‘premium processing’ way.

With a change in your visa status, you can continue to stay in the US beyond the 60-day grace period. If you are alone in the US (precisely having no one to provide for there), you can consider changing to a student visa, F-1. However, you should file an application for the change of your non-immigrant status before the H1B grace period expires. The US has some cheap colleges that offer affordable courses for international students.

Are you among the recently laid-off individuals on a 60-day deadline in the US? If yes, that’s very unfortunate. The 60-day grace period is the most crucial time of your life in the land of American Dream. Utilize your sources, leverage your networking, and make appeals for jobs in online community groups. You can reach out to Indian-origin business leaders on LinkedIn. You can also contact the board members of Indian temples in the city where you are residing. There are Indian community leaders among them; you can seek their help to find an employer who can sponsor your H1B visa before the grace period expires.

Once you get a new employer, you can benefit from the portability rules. The portability rules allow H1B workers to take up new employment without waiting for approval of the new H1B petition filed by the new employer. Of course, the new employer’s permission matters. You can request the new employer for premium processing of the H1B petition. You can continue your stay in the US unless the USCIS takes a call on your employment transfer and conveys its decision to you.

You can use your approved I-140 for an extension of your H1B visa with a new employer. Form I-140 is an immigrant visa petition to the USCIS, seeking to classify non-immigrant foreign workers as legal permanent residents based on employment. Your I-140 approval must be valid unless the petition for an extension of your H1B visa is approved. If the employer who petitioned for your immigrant visa withdraws the I-140 petition within fewer than 180 days of approval after terminating your employment, your H1B status won’t extend with the new employer.

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Since the onset of the pandemic, the wait times for non-immigrant US visas have been as long as the prayers and hopes for eradication of the Novel Coronavirus. Indians who hold a majority of US visas in two main categories – employment and student – have had hard times securing slots for an in-person interview at the US Embassy and consulates in India during the pandemic. Many of them could not travel to the US due to the limited or non-availability of in-person visa interview slots in India.

The US government has already welcomed 2022 with good news for the non-immigrant community of Indians and other foreign nationals. Having anticipated another COVID-19 wave due to the surging cases of Omicron, the Biden administration has decided to waive in-person interviews for US visa applicants in various non-immigrant categories including H1B, H-2, H-3, L1, P1, O1, F1, M1, Q1, J1, and their qualifying derivatives. The US visa interview waiver for certain individual petitions will continue to be effective until December 31, 2022. Whether an individual applying for a non-immigrant visa can avail of the in-person interview waiver, is subject to the discretion exercised by the consular officers.

Picture Credit: Economictimes.Indiatimes.com

“This is a piece of welcome news and a big relief to many of our customers in the United States. Some customers cancelled their flights to India for not getting in-person visa stamping dates. We booked cheap last-minute flight tickets to India for some customers who needed to travel in the eleventh hour for in-person visa interviews,” said the chief customer relations officer of IndianEagle.com, a leading travel-booking partner of Indians in America.

Eligibility Criteria for US Visa Interview Waiver: 

You’re required to meet certain conditions for the USA’s in-person visa stamping waiver. You must have a petition approved by the USCIS. A US visa was not denied to you earlier. You should apply for visa stamping in your country of nationality or country of residence. You must have no apparent ineligibility or potential ineligibility. If you are a first-time applicant for a non-immigrant visa, you must be a citizen or national of the country that participates in the Visa Waiver Program. You are eligible for the recently announced in-person visa interview waiver if you obtained the Visa Waiver Program through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) for your visit to the US earlier. The consular officers are authorized to waive the visa interview requirement if you were approved a US visa earlier.

US Visa Dropbox Eligibility is Extended Indefinitely 

As part of the commitment to simplifying the visa stamping process for non-immigrants, the United States has extended the Dropbox Visa Stamping eligibility from 24 months to 48 months before the expiry of non-immigrant visas. The Dropbox visa stamping facility allows eligible non-immigrants to get a stamp for visa renewal without an in-person interview. The in-person interview waiver for visa renewal is called Dropbox Visa Stamping. Let’s assume your non-immigrant visa will expire in January 2024. You can avail of the Dropbox Stamping facility for renewal within 48 months before the expiration if you meet the eligibility criteria.

You must submit your documents at a Dropbox location in India at least 7 calendar days before the expiry of your non-immigrant visa. If you are eligible for Dropbox stamping, you cannot go for a regular visa interview. You are required to go for visa renewal through Dropbox.

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If the United States’ Budget Reconciliation Bill becomes a law, applying for an H1B visa will be a costly affair. It will help silence the critics of H1B visa holders and shatter the myth that this nonimmigrant visa pools cheap labor from foreign markets into America. Transiting into H1B status from an F1 visa or getting an H1B visa petition directly approved is a crucial passage into the US – the cradle of American Dream – for many skilled Indians in STEM, according to the US immigration system. The House Reconciliation Bill, if approved, will cost employers more than before for the filing of H1B petitions.

The latest version of the bill has proposed a supplemental fee of $500 on top of the current fees for an H1B petition. This is just one of the proposed additional fees for various immigration related petitions. The Budget Reconciliation Bill seeks to increase the existing fee for employment-based permanent residency by an additional $800 and the existing fee for a family-based Green Card (Form I-130) by $100.

Spouses of certain non-immigrants seeking employment authorization, and foreign students seeking OPT will have to pay an additional fee of $500 as proposed in the bill. A supplemental fee of the same amount will be levied on an application for adjustment of status. An application to change or extend nonimmigrant status (Form I-539) will cost more $500. The House Reconciliation Bill in its current form requires you to pay more $500 for applying to renew an expired or about-to-expire Green Card.

The bill requires educational institutes to pay a supplemental fee of $250 for each F1 and M1 visa. The same supplementary amount is proposed for a J-1 exchange visa.

Given the analysis of government and attorney fees by the National Foundation of American Policy, filing an H1B visa petition for the first three years or an extension for an additional three years will cost a company not less than $31,800 including the proposed fee increase. Below is a breakup of the cost to be incurred upon approval of the Budget Reconciliation bill:

• Application fee: $460
• Proposed additional fee: $500
• Attorney fees: $1500 to $4000
• Added attorney fees for a Request for Evidence: $2000 to $4500
• Scholarship and training fee: $1500 ($750 for a company with 25 or fewer employees
• Anti-fraud fee: $500 (on initial petition)
• Premium Processing (optional): $2500
• “50/50” fee (for a company with workforce over 50% H1B/L1): $4000 (on initial petition)
• Visa application (based on reciprocity): $190 ($0 – $800)

(The data source: National Foundation of American Policy)

Though the proposed fee increases will largely impact small businesses, it discards the prevailing myth that US employers import foreign talent on H1B as cheap labor. On the contrary, conglomerates are willing to pay additional fees for skilled foreign workers, according to immigration attorneys. H1B workers in STEM professions earn more than their American counterparts having the same profile, according to economists from the Public Policy Institute of California.

President Biden’s budget reconciliation bill calls for a $100 billion investment to introduce reform measures in the US immigration system and clear Green Card backlogs. If the proposed additional fee increases are approved, it will help expedite the LPR process for hundreds of thousands of Indians stuck in the Green card limbo. This would be the most significant immigration reform to be credited to the Biden administration. Unlike Dr. Pranav Singh, no H1B workers will have to give up on the American Dream due to sheer frustration over the inordinate delay in the green card processing.

The post House Reconciliation Bill Proposes Additional Fees for H1B Filing, LPR Petitions, OPT Applications, Status Adjustment appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

A lot has been written about the green card limbo affecting the future of Indian families in the United States. Several bills including the HR 3648 EAGLE Act 2021, the RELIEF Act, and the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act have been brought onto the table seeking elimination of the country-wise cap on the number of employment-based green cards issued to Indian H1B professionals.

Picture Credit: Gofundme

Another Indian family fell apart over the green card logjam while waiting for legal permanent residency in the US. 48-year-old Anthuvan Kuzhandaisamy, a high-skilled Indian engineer on H1B, died of a heart attack early this month. His untimely demise has left his wife and two children vulnerable to deportation from the US as they have been rendered out of the H4 dependent status. After bidding a final goodbye to Anthuvan Kuzhandaisamy, they are looking towards uncertainties lying ahead.

Anthuvan, a techie from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, was a SAP engineer on contract for Apple through DGN Technologies. He had built a happy nest in California while working for more than 12 years in the land of ‘American Dreams’. In a bid to concretize the nest in the country that he, along with his wife, had started calling their second home, he had filed a green card petition 8 years ago. But the wait time for a green card running into decades for Indian immigrants is taking toll on families like Anthuvan’s.

He was not just a high-skilled professional but also a kind-hearted soul. He helmed the IdhayaOli Foundation, a charitable nonprofit in San Francisco and Tamil Nadu, to help the needy and feed the hungry. He raised thousands of dollars to help the families of laborers who were left stranded and starved after India slipped into lockdown over the pandemic last year. Ironically, his own family is helpless and devastated today.

Anthuvan’s family cannot continue their stay on H4 visa in the US, according to the immigration system that Republic Zoe Lofgren described as ‘severely broken’ while introducing the EAGLE Act 2021 in June. It won’t be easy for them to restart their lives from a scratch in India either. His 19-year-old daughter, a sophomore at Arizona State University, can continue to stay in the US if she applies for the change of status from H4 to F1. To have an F-1 visa means paying exorbitant tuition fees, even if she has called the US her home since her childhood.

Also Read: Denial of H1B Renewal Leaves Indian Family Stranded

The sorry fate of tax-paying resident aliens, including Indian H1B workers stuck in the never-ending green card limbo, has caused outrage in the wake of Anthuvan’s sudden demise. On top of that, a PTI report about more than one lakh employment-based green cards on the verge of being wasted by September 30, 2021 has agitated the community of Indian immigrants. If the green card petitions continue to be processed at the current pace by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, over 100,000 green cards will end up being wasted.

Travel Beats, a subsidiary of Indian Eagle, is a leading Indian Diaspora portal in the US publishing the latest community, immigration, visa, and travel news. Sign up for our free newsletter and receive upcoming stories right to your email inbox.

The post Another Indian Family on H4 Falls Apart over Green Card Limbo while 1 Lakh Green Cards at Risk of Being Wasted appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.