The US visitor visa interview dates are 200 to 280 days away from today, December 27 – which was double of the present delay in early 2023. It means those who wanted to travel to USA in mid-2023 or this holiday season would have to wait until 2024 move past a month or two. Back in April, B1/B2 visa interview appointments at the US Consulate in Kolkata had the longest wait time (400 days), whereas 320 days was the shortest wait time for in-person visitor visa interviews in Chennai. B1/B2 visa seekers are required to wait 360 days for interview appointments at the US Mission in New Delhi, then. Precisely, the US tourist visa backlog was and is there.

PC: Freepik (left) | Wikipedia (right)

The uncertainty, driven by the long visa delay, of reuniting with their parents and other family members continues to cause emotional distress to many Indian immigrants and non-immigrants in the US. Indian parents are missing out on important events in the US, such as childbirth, marriage anniversary celebration, housewarming, and graduation ceremony. However, Indian American Sunil Dhar, who lives in San Francisco,  found a way for his son’s would-be in-laws and other family members from Delhi to bypass the need of a US visitor visa.

His younger son was about to get married in June in the United States, but the bride’s parents and other family members were facing the long B2 visa interview wait time in New Delhi. Reportedly, Sunil Dhar tried hard to ensure that his would-be daughter-in-law’s parents could attend the wedding in the US as wedding is a significant event in Indian culture and a Hindu wedding is incomplete without certain rituals that a bride’s parents perform. In 2022, some of Sunil Dhar’s extended family members from India could not attend his elder son’s wedding in San Francisco due to various visa-related issues.

To avoid the visa-related issue this time, Sunil Dhar made certain arrangements so that his guests from India could enter the US without a visa and bless the couple. He shifted the wedding venue from the Bay Area further up the West Coast. The wedding took place in Blaine near Seattle, Washington State. The Peace Arch Park on the US-Canada border, the northern boundary of Blaine City, was selected as the wedding venue. Interestingly, the Peace Arch Park is a visa neutral zone without immigration checkpoints.

The bride’s family from India had the Canadian visa. They could enter the park via British Columbia without having a US visa and facing any immigration check. Hence, the bride’s parents and other guests traveled to Canada from Delhi, instead of booking Delhi to San Francisco flight tickets. The northern half of the park is in Canada and the southern half stretches into the US. They entered the park from the northern half and attended the wedding in the southern half.

Other than the above, there is an alternate way to bypass the US visitor visa interview delay in India. Indian nationals seeking B1/B2 visas can apply at the US Mission/consulates in international destinations, such as Kuwait City, Japan, and Seoul where the US tourist visa wait time is not even a week. But this alternative is not feasible for everyone, especially senior citizens traveling alone. Indian nationals require a valid visa to enter Kuwait, Japan, and South Korea. Not everyone can afford the cost of obtaining a B1/B2 visa outside of India.

Travel Beats, a leading community portal for Indian Diaspora in America, is a subsidiary of Indian Eagle Travel. A majority of Indians in USA rely on IndianEagle.com for best flight deals to India and USA round the year. Subscribe to Travel Beats and receive interesting community stories, US-India air travel news, as well as US visa updates for Indians right to your email inbox.

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After having officially announced domestic visa renewal for H1B workers in the USA starting in January 2024, the Biden administration is all set for a transition from traditional visa stamps to paperless visas. Soon, US visa stamps and stickers on passports across the world will become a thing of the past! The shift to making American visas paperless is a futuristic move towards modernizing and streamlining the visa process for millions of US visa holders.

PC: Image by Lexamer on Freepik

Eliminating the need to stamp immigrant or non-immigrant visas on passport pages at US embassies and consulates is one of the goals that the State Department is looking to achieve. The news about paperless US visas has raised questions, such as whether the US visa application process will be changed. Julie Stufft, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services, made it clear during a media briefing that the visa process would remain the same.

US visas becoming paperless, does not mean elimination of in-person visa interviews at US missions worldwide for those who are not eligible for visa interview waivers. However, the United States’ paperless visa initiative is expected to simplify the visa renewal process, as it is likely to eliminate the need to mail physical documents to US Missions for verification. Thus, the renewal process will become more efficient and convenient.

Furthermore, risks associated with lost or damaged passports having US visa stamps will be significantly minimized as you won’t be required to show your passport as proof of your visa status. Julie Stufft elaborated on other benefits of paperless visa while speaking to media at the National Press Building in Washington DC.

What is a paperless visa? Is paperless visa same as or similar to e-visa?

A paperless visa is an electronic visa and unlike Indian e-visa. Paperless visas are safely stored in a protected government database. Indian e-visa is a completely online process, right from application to document submission to visa delivery. In the e-visa process, an electronic copy of the visa is sent to the applicant’s registered email ID. On the other hand, the US paperless visa is just what it means – a paperless proof of your visa status, a digital visa authorization (DVA). There’s no change to the application process for first-time US visa applicants, be it the forms to be filled or interviews to be attended.

Will paperless US visas be available for Indian nationals?

“I hope as soon as possible,” said Julie Stufft, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services. She did not give any other statement about it. Whether the paperless visa initiative would extend to Indians in some or all visa categories is still not clear. We are yet to know what eligibility criteria Indians would be required to fulfil for paperless US visas in the future. Needless to say, Indians make over 10% of total US visa applicants.

When will the United States roll out paperless visas?

The US plans to phase out traditional visas gradually over a period of 18 months or more. The paperless US visa initiative being a long-term project will see transition from the traditional system to a modern system in a phased manner. Buoyed by the success of the pilot trial of paperless visas at the US diplomatic mission in Dublin, the US government looks forward to launching electronic visas.

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Obtaining visas to the United States had been a nightmare for Indians primarily because of inordinately long visa interview appointment wait times in India since the pandemic subsided. With the onset of 2023, the US government has taken various measures to remove the bottlenecks and improve the process at its mission and consulates in India, reasoning that “India is our number one priority” now.

Indeed, India is the second country (after China) to send the largest number of students to America every year. However, the interview appointment wait time has significantly dropped for Indian students seeking F, M and J visas, whereas there is little improvement in the wait time (as long as 600 to 700 days) for first-time B1/B2 visa applicants in India.

PC: Freepik.com

In one of the major moves, from domestic stamping of H1B visa renewal in the US to expanding visa interview waiver, the US Department of State has increased the student visa application timeline for India, China and other countries. Now onwards, international students can apply for F1 and M1 visas within 365 days before the commencement of their academic term. This surprising move is a much-needed respite for Indians looing upon America as the ultimate destination for higher studies.

Earlier, the US Mission and Consulates would open the student visa interview scheduling window not more than 120 days before the start of academic terms. The extended US student visa application deadline will allow foreign students, especially Indians, a lot more time to apply for a F1 or M1 visa and prepare for the interview. However, there is a catch. International students having confirmed visas can travel to USA only within 30 days prior to the date of their program commencement. The student visa policy update will also give US schools more flexibility and time to issue and accept the Form I-20.

Another advantage of the new US student visa application timeline is that US colleges and universities can now issue I-20 forms 12 to 14 months before their programs begin. The Form I-20 issued to a student officially confirms the student’s enrolment in a study program at a US school. Precisely, it is a certificate of eligibility for non-immigrant student status in the US. A Form I-20 is the document that demonstrates that an international student has the financial capacity to stay and study in the United States. The form is a must need to seek the benefits, if any, available to international students in the US.

The generous extension of the US student visa application window is the second big move after certain changes were made to the US student visa system and policy in the first big move in 2022.

Travel Beats, a leading community portal for Indians in America, reports on US visas and immigration. Travel Beats is a subsidiary of Indian Eagle Travel, a US-based trusted air-ticketing partner of Indians, NRIs, OCIs and US nationals. Indian Eagle offers students discounted flights tickets from USA to India every year.

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“I have not visited my parents for two years. I shelved travel plans because of pocket-burning airline tickets to India after the resumption of regular international flights early this year. I was blessed with a baby recently. I wish either my parents or the in-laws to be with us at the current phase of our parenthood. But no luck with B2 visa appointment dates for them. I desperately keep logged in on the US Embassy India website hoping to get a slot available; however, we are in shock that the earliest appointment is expected by March-April 2024,” Aparna Kaushik from Chicago said to Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats.

Picture Credit: US Embassy

International travel restrictions have been lifted. Country-specific entry regulations have abated. Airlines have restored their service frequency to the pre-pandemic times. But visa appointment delays continue to be a nightmare for Indians seeking interview slots for the US visitor visa, B1/B2. Particularly, the first-time applicants are at the mercy of the US Embassy and Consulates grappling with the mounting backlog of applications and the staffing shortage in India. If sources are to be believed, the backlog has exceeded 4 lakh Indian applicants awaiting interview slots for B2 and other US visas.

“Early this month we posted on our Twitter page that the US Embassy India would resume in-person tourist visa appointments from September. Surprisingly, in only two weeks, the slots got booked until April 2023. Now more than 500 days is the average wait time for the US visitor visa appointment dates in India, according to the US State Department website,” said the chief customer relations officer of Indian Eagle, a leading air-ticketing partner of Indians in America.

It means that if you apply for a US visitor visa now, your chances for getting an appointment before 2024 are minimal to none. This is nothing short of a nightmare for the first-time applicants who are required to appear for an in-person interview and biometrics. However, the wait time is relatively shorter for B2 visa renewals and those planning a business trip to the United States.

“Though the US visa wait times vary from consulate to consulate in India, this is the worst that I have ever seen since the September attacks 2001,” said David Bier, the associate director of immigration policy at Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington DC.

Picture Credit: Travel.State.Gov

The US Embassy in New Delhi has B2/B1 visa appointment dates 582 calendar days away and students visa slots some 470 days away. The US Consulate in Mumbai expects 580 calendar days to be the estimated waiting time for a US visitor visa appointment. 520 calendar days is the likely wait time for the same at the US Consulate in Hyderabad, whereas a US student visa appointment is 477 days away. In Kolkata, the US Consulate has the wait time spanning 585 calendar days from now for B1/B2 interview slots. The average wait time is 510 calendar days for B1/B2 visa appointment dates at the US Consulate, Chennai, according to the US Department of State website.

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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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Be it a pandemic, cross-border political conflict, or international travel restriction, lives at grass-roots level take a hit, in addition to economy. Some Indian families that started building a second home on the foundation of their ‘American Dreams’ are not an exception to the impact of the restricted entry into the United States. Some of the families including H1B and H4 visa holders have come to a tragic split-up over the USA’s current restriction on travel from India. One such family is that of Kiran and Jitendra Shukla, who suffered a breakup forever early this month.

Kiran Shukla, who is currently stuck in India, could not attend the funeral of her husband Jitendra Shukla in Edison, New Jersey due to the infinite ban on non-immigrant residents’ entry into the US.

Jitendra who called Edison home away from India died due to severe liver damage on May 10, while his wife on H4 was in Mumbai looking after COVID patients in her immediate family. The moment Kiran got the news about his untimely demise in solitude; the world came to an end for her. She struggled to travel back so that she could see him for the last time, but the US government’s proclamation restricting travel from India held her back in Mumbai and added to her dismay.

Kiran, an H4 EAD holder, was working in a bank in New Jersey prior to traveling to India in February when Indian government relaxed quarantine norms for international arrivals due to the decreasing caseload. Family emergency – taking care of her ailing father – was her reason for traveling to India. After her father passed away in April, her 35-year-old brother-in-law contracted the virus. He lost the battle, too.

While she was trying to deal with her personal grief, the second wave of the pandemic engulfed the country resulting in the India to USA travel restriction. The fate had some more bereavement for her.

Since Jitendra Shukla was hospitalized with abdominal complications immediately after the India-US travel ban took effect on May 4, Kiran had been trying to return to New Jersey. Initially she thought she would be able to fly back as a parent of an unmarried US citizen under the age of 21 years, but she could not make it without the visa stamping on her passport. The shutdown of the US Consulate, Mumbai made it a lot more difficult for her.

Jitendra and Kiran were likely to get their green cards in the next few months. As Jitendra, an H1B visa holder, passed away suddenly, she fears deportation from where she has had home for 20 years and separation from her US-born child. Her H4 status may be rendered invalid, and her life in USA may be jeopardized. Naturally, she can’t help but apprehend what awaits a law-abiding, tax-paying US resident like her next.

“Kiran Shukla could have applied for a National Interest Exception (NIE) on grounds of family emergency in the US. Perhaps, she was aware of this only way out of the impasse that the United States’ partial travel ban has created for certain non-US residents who are physically present in India,” said the editor of Travel Beats, a leading community portal for Indians in America by Indian Eagle.

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Since the pandemic began, time has been a roller-coaster ride for many non-immigrant US visa holders. They are back to where they were early in 2020. In the wake of the pandemic, India suspended all international flights, inbound and outbound, leaving thousands of non-immigrant visa holders stranded and separated from their families in the US until the launch of Vande Bharat Mission expanding to air bubble travel. A little more than a year later, they have met with the same fate in the aftermath of the US government’s entry restriction for certain travelers from India, effective this May 4.

Picture Credit: Worldnewsera.com

Ashu Mahajan, a 44-year-old H1B professional from New Jersey, is left helpless in India and pleading with the US government for return to his family because of the selective move restricting entry to certain travelers from India – which his wife calls ‘an irony’. Anu Sharma, an H4 visa holder from California, has also got stuck in India for an indefinite period of the US travel restriction. A virus can transmit through anyone, a US citizen or a non-US citizen; it does not differentiate. We feel we are once again penalized because we are in the long queue for green cards,” she told the American Bazaar.

Ashu Mahajan, who has been working as an architect on H1B in the US since 2008, had gone to India to look after his 75-year-old, ailing father in mid-April. His short trip was extended as his father contracted the virus and succumbed to it after a few days of hospitalization and intubation in New Delhi. He cannot travel back also because the US consulates have cancelled in-person appointments in India. He can’t re-enter the US unless he attends an in-person appointment for visa stamping. With his dad being no more, Ashu is all alone in India and longs to be his with wife and kids in Scotch Plains.

Another H1B visa holder whose wife is expecting next month in California is stuck in India due to the travel impasse between the two countries. Out of the sheer concern about his pregnant wife being alone, he is desperately looking for a way out of the restriction. Similar is the fate of many others who had traveled to India for visa stamping and family emergency got stuck there as the US government’s entry restriction disrupted their return travel plans amid the soaring numbers of positive cases in India.

Inundated by calls of anxiety from those stuck in India and their separated families in the US, immigration attorneys opine that the selective travel restriction does not serve the purpose. The entry restriction should not be based on one’s citizenship, LPR status, or visa type. It should be either equal to all arriving from India or revoked immediately, according to attorneys dealing in immigration and visa services.

President Biden’s proclamation restricting travel from India, beginning May 4, mostly affects H1B and H4 visa holders whose spouse is neither a US citizen nor a lawful permanent resident. They are not subject to the proclamation if they are parents of a US-born kid. However, there is a way out for some of those who are not exempt from the restriction on entry into the United States.

Any non-immigrant visa holder/foreign national/non-US resident whose entry to the USA is in the national interest, as determined by the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security, may qualify for a National Interest Exception (NIE). Nonimmigrant visa holders whose travel to the US is critical to the purposes including but not limited to national security, civic infrastructure, public healthcare and humanitarianism are needed to demonstrate that they qualify for a National Interest Exception. They can contact the nearest US Embassy or Consulate in India prior to traveling or returning to the US. A National Interest Exception, if granted, is valid for a single entry within 30 days from the date of approval.

• U.S. Embassy New Delhi:   NewDelhiNIE@state.gov
• U.S. Consulate General Chennai: ChennaiNIE@state.gov
• U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad: HyderabadNIE@state.gov
• U.S. Consulate General Kolkata: KolkataNIE@state.gov
• U.S. Consulate General Mumbai: MumbaiNIE@state.gov

You must provide the following information in your email seeking a National Interest Exception:

• Last name
• First name
• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Country of citizenship
• Passport number
• Visa number and category
• Travel dates
• Travel purpose
• National interest category

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The US presidential election being barely two weeks away, the State Department has proposed to reform the way B1 visa is used, rather exploited, for H1B specialty occupations in the United States. B1 is a business visitor visa that lets foreign nationals enter the US and perform H1B jobs for a short period of time under foreign payroll. In view of the current pandemic having rendered hundreds of thousands of American workers jobless, the Trump administration is striving to leave no room for the use of B1 visa ‘in lieu of’ H1B visa.

The proposal, if approved, will ban the issuance of temporary business visas that are usually obtained in lieu of an H1B visa for short-term specialty occupations. The move is anticipated to affect several Indian companies and their technology professionals. The proposal is aimed at eliminating the misconception that B1 visa is an alternative to H1B and an alternate passage to enter the United States.

In the proposal, the State Department said a reputed Indian software giant, in December 2019, got into a tiff with the Attorney General of California over being asked for a US$ 800,000 settlement against the allegations that 500 of their employees stayed and worked in the US on sponsored B1 visa instead of H1B visa.

Approximately 8000 foreign workers will take a hit if the proposal seeking to eliminate the long-standing ‘B1 in lieu of H1B’ policy is approved, according to the State Department’s estimates. However, a US immigration lawyer opines that the process to act on the proposal will take a few months. The proposed change to the ‘B1 in lieu of H1B’ policy was made public on October 21, 2020 and the State Department will invite public comments on the proposal for next 60 days.

The proposal includes an illustration on the misuse of the ‘B1 in lieu of H1B’ policy. A Silicon Valley company is not obliged to pay a foreign technology professional on B1 visa as much as the wage to the same professional with H1B status. The minimum wage for an IT engineer of foreign origin on B1 visa is much lesser than that for the same skilled labor on H1B. Besides, the B1 visa fees are much lower than the H1B visa fees.

Also Check: Newly Proposed Restrictions to H1B Visa 

The State Department believes that the proposed change to the regulation that has supported the ‘B1 in lieu of H1B’ policy all these years will clog the existing loopholes in the B1 visa program and boost the economic interests of local workers in the US. US companies which might have misused the ‘B1 in lieu of H1B’ policy by paying remuneration lesser than the prevailing wage for the services that a foreign professional on sponsored B1 visa has rendered in a H1B specialty occupation to reform their business practices.

Travel Beats, a Community Portal for Indians in the US, is a subsidiary of Indian Eagle Travel. Travel Beats publishes the latest Indian American community stories, US visa & immigration news, and information about US-India air bubble travel. Indian Eagle, a most trusted travel partner of Indians in America, is booking air bubble flights from USA to India for short and suitable itineraries.    

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No new applications for OCI card, Indian passport, visa to India, and Renunciation of Indian Citizenship will be entertained by Cox & Kings Global Services with effect from October 16, 2020. An outsourcing service provider for the government of India, Cox & Kings Global Services (CKGS) will close its operations at Indian Missions worldwide on October 14. Reportedly, VFS Global will take the charge with effect from November 2, 2020.

Picture Credit: India Abroad | The New York Times

Those having compelling/unavoidable reasons to apply for emergency visa to India, Indian Passport, or OCI card are hereby requested to contact their nearest Indian Consulate/Embassy. From October 19, Indian Missions will directly provide the services, in limited capacity, to applicants with emergency cases. Notably, all OCI card processing services will remain suspended until VFS Global takes over the operations on November 2.

The CKGS website will accept online applications till 5 pm on October 14, 2020. Applicants are required to ensure their documents with pre-paid return envelopes reach CKGS by 5 pm on October 16. Any applications submitted and any documents received after the above-mentioned deadlines will not be processed, according to CKGS.

The websites of Indian embassies and consulates will publish the details of VFS Global, including service fees, operational hours, and contact information in due course. Indian Missions need the applicant with a compelling reason to contact them directly for further information.

The email helplines of Indian embassies and consulates are open for emergency visa applications. Indian Missions will continue to issue emergency visa to applicants in the eligible categories allowed to travel to India. If you are from New York, you can apply for emergency Indian visa to visa.newyork@mea.gov.in. If you reside in Washington DC and its jurisdiction, you can write to asovisa.washington@mea.gov.in explaining the emergency.

Once your email request for emergency visa to India is approved, you will be informed of the steps to initiate the application process. Following the procedure, you may send the completed form along with a pre-paid return envelope by postal mail to your nearest consulate or embassy for further processing.

The procedure for emergency passport applications is as same as the above. However, email addresses of the Indian Embassy and Consulates in the United States and other countries are different for emergency passport applications. If you have any further query, it can be addressed through PRAMIT dashboard available on the websites of Indian Missions.

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With the US presidential election nearing, H1B visa has become a tug of war between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Both the contestants for the presidential hot seat of the United States are racing in the opposite direction as far as the fate of H1B visa is concerned. The way President Trump is pulling all stops to reform the non-immigrant employment visa program in favor of American workers; it seems that the fate of H1B visa seekers depends on the outcome of the US elections 2020.

Picture credit: Forbes.com

On October 6, 2020, the Trump administration came up with additional reforms to restrict the entry of high-skilled foreign workers, who are collectively called cheap foreign labor in the Trump regime. H1B visa is the main target of the new additional regulations that will go into effect in 60 days. The rules that the Department of Homeland Security is expected to publish may be challenged in court.

The newly proposed changes to the H1B visa program are aimed at redefining ‘specialty occupations’, tightening hiring rules for H1B employers, and making them pay higher remunerations to foreign workers. Reducing the validity of H1B visas to one year for foreign professionals who are hired through third party consulting firms is one of the changes. The Trump administration has also proposed to deploy stricter enforcement measure so that employers follow H1B rules.

Reportedly, the Trump administration officials are planning to make the new restrictions to H1B visa as an “interim final rule” (IFR) – which is a process to limit the public comment period and expedite implementation. 

“We have entered an era in which economic security is an integral part of homeland security,” acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement. “In response, we must do everything we can within the bounds of the law to make sure the American worker is put first,” he added arguing that it was high time to whip down the visa program.

On the other hand, an influential Congressman from Alabama introduced a new legislation – the American Jobs First Act – in the House of Representatives early this week. By the American Jobs First Act, Congressman Mo Brooks seeks to prevent US employers from replacing domestic workers with ‘cheap foreign labor.’ The legislation requires employers to remunerate their foreign employees on H1B more than their American workers so that foreign talent is imported only when it is an absolute need.

Congressman Mo Brooks’ the American Jobs First Act also seeks to suspend the F1 OPT program for the sake of American graduates. Furthermore, the legislation is aimed at eliminating the diversity visa lottery program through which 50,000 green cards with work authorization are issued to foreigners irrespective of their credentials. In Mo Brooks’ opinion, the American Jobs First Act will ensure American workers are not disadvantaged any more on their own land. The Optional Practical Training helps to get US companies a tax break for employing foreign graduates instead of American freshers.

In September 2020, the US Department of Labor announced the H1B One Workforce Grant Program for training American workers for high-skilled H1B jobs in key sectors.  In the coming days, a grant of $150 million would be approved and spent on upskilling domestic workers so that US employers’ dependence on H1B workers from India and other countries could be reduced.

Travel Beats is a leading overseas Indian Community Portal by Indian Eagle, a most trusted travel booking partner of Indians in the USA. Subscribe to Travel Beats’ free newsletter for latest updates on US visa & immigration, Indian American community, booking of air bubble flights, and USA to India travel news. 

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