The United States of America is going to change the H-1B visa renewal process to not letting people leave the country to extend their visa. This change will impact hundreds of thousands of skilled professionals working in specialised fields.
HOW APPLICANTS COULD RENEW THEIR VISA EARLIER?
Earlier, applicants have to travel back to their home country to get a renewal stamp. It involves traveling to their country, spending huge sums on air tickets and including a long wait time period for getting a confirmed visa appointment. Because of the tedious process, professionals working under this visa process were raising concerns from a long time back.
STEPS TAKEN TO STREAMLINE THE PROCESS
To mitigate the issue, last year, the US Department of State had started a pilot project to test the process. It involved around 20,000 applicants who meet the requirement specified in the US Federal Register. The aim of this project was to make the visa renew process convenient and fast for the applicants.
The United States of America made this declaration in its year-end press statement, the US Department of State said the pilot project for H-1B renewal “allowed many specialty occupation workers from India to renew their visas without leaving the United States. This pilot program streamlined the renewal process for thousands of applicants, and the Department of State is working to formally establish a US-based renewal program in 2025.”
CONTROVERSIES REVOLVING AROUND THIS CHANGE
The process change comes at a time of Presidency change and there is an intense debate going on the visa change’s impact on American citizens. The hard right have requested incoming President Donald Trump to end this process along with curbing other immigration programmes.
However, Donald Trump and his top officials including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have supported this process saying that it will allow talented people to stay in America and contribute to the success of staying at the top of the league on healthcare, technology and research.
India is in the top list of H-1B visa holders globally, most of whom work in the tech industry followed by healthcare and research. According to US State Department data from 2022, 77 percent of 3,20,000 H-1B visa applications went to Indians. In 2023 too, out of 3,86,000 visas, more than 72 percent were issued to Indian nationals.
In 2024, 3,31,000 student visas were issued to Indians. Thus, this change is going to impact Indians on a broader level keeping the statistics in mind.
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