UNITED STATES VISA AND IMMIGRATION NEWS

• Faster US visa Appointments for Indian Citizens
• US looks to solve problem of long wait time in visa issuance
• Mayorkas says immigration crisis not unique to US
• U.S. to Provide 35,000 More Seasonal Worker Visas
• US federal immigration agency to start H1-B visa registration from 1 March 2022
• Over 200,000 Green Cards Wasted in 2021 as Backlog Triples
• Visa Backlog Blocks Nursing Help in U.S., but Progress Seen
• US allows automatic work authorisation permits to spouses of H-1B visa holders
• Indian students flock back to US Universities
• US Immigration Reform Prospects
• President Biden Gives Boost to U.S. Immigration
• US resumes accepting Student Visas from China
• US to begin processing suspended worker visas

 11 January 2023

Faster US visa Appointments for Indian Citizens

• The wait time to get an appointment in India for an interview to get a visa to travel to the United States has reached nearly 1,000 days. However, there are two categories of visitors that may be able to get an appointment in less than a week in Hyderabad and Chennai, according to the latest data on the US Department of State- Bureau of Consular Affairs website on Tuesday.
  
  Meanwhile, interview waiver visitors in the B1/B2 categories may be able to get a visa interview appointment in six days in Chennai, as per latest data. On the other hand, interview required as well as interview waiver crew and transit visitors i.e. those in the C, D, C1/D categories will only have to wait a day to get an appointment.
  
  Those awaiting US student visa appointments and exchange visitors are currently witnessing a wait time of anywhere between 64 days in Chennai to 325 days in Hyderabad.
  
  Earlier in a press briefing on December 8, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the Joe Biden administration is aware of the issues. “We are still working to respond to the significant demand of these visa services…We are successfully lowering visa interview wait times — that’s around the world,” she said.
  
  Pierre added that the administration has doubled its hiring of US foreign service personnel to do this “important” work. Visa processing is recovering faster than projected and the US expects to reach pre-pandemic processing levels.
  
  On January 5, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the US issued more student visas in fiscal year 2022 than in any year since 2016 and added that its embassy and consulates in India in particular broke their all-time record for the number of student visas issued in a single fiscal year.
  
  

 5 December 2022

US looks to solve problem of long wait time in visa issuance in India

• US Charge d'Affaires Ambassador Elizabeth Jones has said that the US is undertaking "tremendous efforts" to solve the problem on long wait time in issuance of visas in India. She said that the problem of long wait time for visas was further triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.
  
  The newly-appointed diplomat added that the problem is particularly bad in India because of the high demand for visas. The issue is on "top of the mind" of Washington and efforts are being initiated to cut the wait time for grant of visas through recruitment and training of visa counsellors, she said at a media interaction.
  
  Indian students comprise nearly 20% of all international students studying in the United States, with the Open Doors report in 2021 showing there were 1,76,582 students from India in the 2020-2021 academic year.
  
  Charge d'Affaires Patricia Lacina hailed the US mission in India's achievement, commenting, "We are happy to see so many students were able to receive visas and reach their Universities after the delays caused in previous years by the Covid-19 pandemic. We issued over 82,000 student visas this summer alone, more than in any previous year. This shows that the United States remains for most Indian families the most sought-after country for higher education. It also highlights the important contributions Indian students make to both our countries as they build lifelong connections with American peers to maintain and grow international partnerships, working collectively to address current and future global challenges".
  
  Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs Don Heflin said, "We are thrilled to have done our part to help Indian students pursue a top-notch education. Hopefully, there are a lot of happy students and parents out there. International student mobility is central to US diplomacy and nowhere is the contribution of students bigger than in India. Here's wishing this year's group of students the best of luck in their studies!".
  
  This comes amid growing concerns over the long waiting period for first time visa applicants in India, especially for those applying under B1 (business) and B2 (tourist) categories. The waiting period of first time B1/B2 visa applicants in India is close to three years.
  
  Jones stated that tremendous recruiting and training efforts are underway right now in Washington to recruit and train vice counsellors for many places. "Our mission in India is going to get quite a number of them... By the summer, we will be fully staffed here in Delhi and in our consulates to issue visas and do these interviews," she said.
  
  Meanwhile, Jones also mentioned that efforts are underway to reduce and eliminate the time for issuance of H1B visas. The H-1B program applies to employers seeking to hire nonimmigrant foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
  
  Jones also highlighted that the US issued 82,000 visas to Indian students this year.
  
  

 3 July 2022

Mayorkas says immigration crisis not unique to US

• Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday that the immigration crisis at the southern border is not unique to the U.S., and that southern countries are also seeing a massive influx of migrants due to the global economic downturn and climate change.
  
  During an appearance on ABC’s "This Week," Mayorkas was asked by anchor Martha Raddatz whether the Biden’s administration’s policies were working at the U.S.-Mexico border, where Border Patrol agents are reporting a record number of apprehensions of immigrants trying to illegally cross into the U.S.
  
  The secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, said in a statement that the decision was "informed by current demand in the labor market" in order to "help to support American businesses."
  
  "I think that we are doing a good job. We need to do better," Mayorkas responded. "We are focused on doing more, and we are doing it with our partners to the south."
  
  "This is a phenomenon that not only the United States is experiencing – Colombia now has more than 2 million Venezuelans within its borders, Costa Rica has indicated that 2% of its population is Nicaraguan, and that might rise to 5%," he said.
  
  "The migration that is occurring throughout the hemisphere is reflective of the economic downturn, increase in violence throughout the region, the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the results of climate change – we're really in a regional challenge, and we are addressing it with our regional partners," he added.
  
  Mayorkas’ comments come after the Department of Homeland Security released a report last week showing Border Patrol agents processed migrants who illegally entered the country over 220,000 times in May, setting an all-time record.
  
  

 1 April 2022

U.S. to Provide 35,000 More Seasonal Worker Visas

• The Biden administration, responding to an increasing demand for temporary workers, announced on Thursday that it would make an additional 35,000 seasonal worker visas available for American businesses to hire foreign workers ahead of the coming summer months.
  
  The visa program being expanded, known as the H-2B visa program, allows American businesses to hire foreign workers for seasonal nonagricultural jobs like mowing lawns, cleaning hotel rooms, staffing amusement parks and waiting tables. Industries like landscaping, hospitality and tourism are particularly reliant on foreign nationals to meet high demand during the busy summer months.
  
  The secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, said in a statement that the decision was "informed by current demand in the labor market" in order to "help to support American businesses."
  
  The number of H-2B visas is normally capped at 33,000 for six months of each fiscal year. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced at the beginning of March that it had already met the cap for the period from April to September 2022.
  
  

 1 February 2022

US federal immigration agency to start H1-B visa registration from 1 March 2022

• The registration for the much-sought-after H-1B visa for the fiscal year 2023 will begin from March 1 and the successful applicants will be randomly selected and notified online by March 31, according to the US federal immigration agency.
  
  The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
  
  The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in a statement said the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2023 H-1B cap will open at noon on March 1 and run through noon on March 18.
  
  During the period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to complete and submit their registrations using the online H-1B registration system.
  
  

 1 January 2022

Over 200,000 Green Cards Wasted in 2021 as Backlog Triples in Two Years

• According to USCIS, the agency had a net backlog of 2.5 million cases at the end of FY2019. By the end of FY2020, USCIS’ own Forms and policies, fiscal and staffing problems, pandemic-related office closures, and an inability to receive or process most application types electronically resulted in an explosion in the backlog, which more than doubled to 6.1 million pending cases in the space of a year.
  
  2021 saw the USCIS backlog continue to grow, though not at the astronomical rate seen in 2020. Roughly 69% of the 8.84 million immigration applications submitted to USCIS in FY2021 were approved, while a little more than 808,000 were denied. However, despite USCIS completing nearly 80% of the cases it received in FY2021, the processing backlog at the agency grew to more than 8 million pending cases at the end of FY2021. This means that in just two years the backlog has more than tripled: from 2.5 million to more than 8 million pending cases.
  
  Despite the pandemic, 2020 was a busy year for USCIS, and 2021 saw an even larger number of applications and petitions received by the agency — an increase of 18 percent. The approval rate across all Forms showed a marked increase in the fourth quarter of 2021, rising from less than 58% in the third quarter to just over 81% in the fourth. The denial rate across all Forms also rose somewhat in the fourth quarter, gaining around three percentage points in the fourth quarter to land at 10.75%, or 251,700 out of more than 2.3 million.
  
  On the other hand, the overall approval rate fell from 85% last year to only 69% at the end of September 2021, with overall denials also falling from 11.5% in FY2020 to only 9% in FY2021. The first quarter of FY2021 saw the lowest number of Forms received by USCIS all year — 1.73 million. Since then the agency has received 2.18 million, 2.58 million, and 2.34 million Forms each quarter, to end the year with 8,837,718 Forms received and 6,138,799 Forms approved. Even so, an additional 8,036,142 cases remain pending in the backlog.
  
  

 08 December 2021

Visa Backlog Blocks Nursing Help in U.S., but Progress Seen

• Observers say they’ve started to see progress on efforts to streamline the immigration visa process to allow more internationally trained health professionals to work in the U.S. and help address widespread nursing shortages amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But they also say more needs to be done.
  
  The pandemic has slowed the pace at which U.S. officials have conducted interviews with visa seekers, which is one of the final steps needed to gain permanent residency. As of November, only 28,964 out of more than 490,000 qualified immigrant visa applicants were scheduled for interview, according to figures from the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs.
  
  An estimated 10,000 foreign-trained nurses have been on the waiting list for an interview, with the average wait time anywhere from 12 to 18 months, according to Sinead Carbery, brand president of O’Grady Peyton International, the international division of leading health care staffing recruitment firm AMN Healthcare.
  
  Carbery and others contend a contributing factor to the delays in processing immigration visas for nurses has been a four-tier system the U.S. Department of State established late last year to prioritize cases. While the system was intended to work through the backlog by granting higher priority to petitions filed by immediate family members, for example, it placed employment-based visa petitions, which includes visas sought by health care professionals, among the last in line to be processed.
  
  

 12 November 2021

US allows automatic work authorisation permits to spouses of H-1B visa holders

• The United States has allowed providing automatic work authorisation permits to the spouses of the H-1B visa holders. It must be noted that in America, a larger population of H1-B visa holders are Indian IT professionals. With this immigration-friendly move, the Joe Biden administration has made the employment process simpler, especially for Indian-American women.
  
  A US court reached a settlement for a class-action lawsuit, directing the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to allow up to 180 days auto extension on work authorisation for spouses of L-1 and H1-B visa holders.
  
  L-1 visa is valid for a relatively short amount of time. L-2 visa is used to enter the US by the dependent spouse and unmarried children under 21 years of age of qualified L-1 visa holders. It is a non-immigrant visa, and is only valid for the duration of the spouse's L-1 visa.
  
  However, the L-1 spouses will get the extension without applying for it, the H-4 visa will still have to apply for the extension once their employment permit expires.
  
  An H-4 visa is issued by the USCIS to immediate family members (spouse and children under 21 years of age) of the H-1B visa holders. The H-4 visa is issued to those who have already the process of seeking employment-based lawful permanent resident status in the US. Over 90% of H-4 applicants are Indian women.
  
  

 06 September 2021

Indian students flock back to US Universities

• The United States mission in Delhi, in fact, had a surprise announcement earlier this week of more student visa applications having been approved in India in 2021 than ever before, through its embassy and consulates, despite the global Covid-19 pandemic. This announcement of more than 55,000 students and exchange visitors visas already issued to students in India even as more were getting approved every day, comes amid reports of students in many other countries facing difficulties and delays in getting US visas approved for the Fall term of 2021.
  
  For students in India too, plans for joining US universities in 2021 have been challenging. With the second wave of the pandemic in India during April/May, all US consular operations remained shut with no certainty about when they would resume.
  
  Many universities in the US that have recently opened their doors to in-person classes, are still crunching the numbers on international student enrolments. "We call this the add/drop week when students register for courses and/or drop them -it appears that we have a high number of students from India for Fall 2021, perhaps higher than any previous year," says Kiki Caruson, interim vice president, USF World, University of South Florida. While this validates the statement of the US Embassy in India on having issued a record number of visas for Fall 2021, Caruson adds that some of these will be students who deferred their Spring 2021 admission to Fall 2021. "These students made their plans to come to the United States pre-pandemic because of the excellence, diversity of programmes and the flexibility of the higher education system and the promise it offers for professional and personal success," she said adding that though universities in India were yet to start face-to-face classes, the US had opened its doors to international students
  
  

 01 August 2021

US Immigration Reform Prospects

• A measure to grant permanent legal status to young people brought to the United States illegally years ago would be perfectly appropriate in a proposed $3.5 trillion federal budget package.
  
  More than 80,000 young undocumented immigrants who hoped to gain legal protections through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program had their dreams dashed in July when a federal judge in Texas closed the program to first-time applicants.
  
  The judge’s unfortunate ruling has prompted Democrats to redouble their efforts to create a more permanent legal-status solution for these young people, often called “Dreamers,” who were brought to our country illegally as children and call no other nation home.
  
  This time, advocates for the Dreamers, including the Chicago City Council Latino Caucus and Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, are putting their hopes in a proposed $3.5 trillion federal budget plan, supported only by Democrats on Capitol Hill, to finally achieve this fundamental immigration reform. Because it is a budget bill, Democrats could push it through by a simple majority vote, bypassing Republican opposition.
  
  President Joe Biden last Thursday made clear he supports including immigration reform — specific steps to protect Dreamers from deportation and possibly give them a clear path to citizenship — in the budget package. But Biden did not spell out exactly what changes he has in mind. And Republicans, for their part, wonder what immigration reform has to do with the budget.
  
  

 02 July 2021

President Biden Gives Boost to U.S. Immigration

• The USAFIS Organization reports a significant improvement in the attitudes expressed by foreign nationals regarding U.S. immigration since Joseph Biden became President of the United States. "The change to a more positive attitude about America and U.S. immigration is 'like night and day' now that Joe Biden is in The White House," noted Elsie Crisman, Public Relations Manager at the USAFIS Organization.
  
  "For the past two decades, USAFIS has been helping thousands of people around the world to correctly apply for various immigrant and non-immigrant U.S. visa programs," she explained, "so we are quite familiar with the trends and definitely noticed a big difference between the attitudes indicated by many potential immigrants during the previous four years and the renewed enthusiasm foreign nationals are currently expressing." The USA is the top destination for immigrants, attracting over one million newcomers each year, and it also has the most foreign-born residents of any country (approximately 45 million).
  
  During the 2016 presidential campaign, former U.S. Senator Joe Biden had a pro-immigration platform and he chose as his running mate former U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, the daughter of immigrants, who is the first woman, and first American of Black and Asian heritage, to become Vice-President of the United States. His first day in The White House, January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden signed an order ending the previous president's travel ban for people from several mainly Muslim countries, plus he sent to the Congress his U.S. immigration reform bill which offers a pathway to American citizenship for millions of immigrants and would increase the number of Diversity Visas authorized to be granted through the Green Card Lottery from 55,000 to 80,000 per year.
  
  Furthermore, President Biden signed another order on February 24, 2021, which cancelled the previous president's temporary Green Card suspension. Besides his pro-immigration rhetoric and actions, President Biden's compassion has set a more positive tone in America, while his traditional style of governing and diplomacy has reassured parties at home and abroad.
  
  Thus, the United States is once again viewed by potential immigrants as a country that welcomes newcomers and offers them freedom, equality, economic mobility and the opportunity to live the American Dream. In a sign that the USA is returning to normal, there is once more a major shortage of workers who are needed to fill a record 9.3 million U.S. job vacancies, according to the Department of Labor.
  
  

 4 May 2021

US resumes accepting Student Visas from China

• The U.S. Embassy and consulates in China are scheduled to resume visa appointments for students, starting May 4, after Washington lifted travel restrictions on Monday for students from China and several other countries.
  
  More than 1,000 visa officers will meet students in person to process their applications, William Bistransky, acting consul general at the U.S. Embassy in China, said Friday at a news conference.
  
  On May 4, visa officers at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing will wear sweatshirts with logos of the universities they graduated from to send a signal to Chinese students that Americans "welcome foreign students into our homes or communities or universities," Bistransky said.
  
  By mid-May, the embassy will be able to conduct 2,000 student visa appointments a day, Bistransky said. Within one hour after the U.S. Embassy's website opened for online visa appointments for students, it received more than 3,000 applications, he said.
  
  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Embassy and consulates in China canceled the vast majority of in-person appointments for immigrant and nonimmigrant visa processing more than 13 months ago.
  
  Chinese students planning to go to American schools in the fall must apply for a U.S. visa 120 days before the start of their academic program and enter the U.S. 30 days before, Bistransky said.
  
  Whether Chinese students need to complete a 14-day quarantine upon arrival will be subject to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local authorities' policies, he said.
  
  Starting in January, the CDC has required all passengers arriving in the U.S. from abroad to have COVID-19 tests no more than three days before their flight and to present negative results to the airline before boarding. The requirement still applies to students going to the U.S. this fall, Bistransky said.
  
  China is the largest source of foreign students for the U.S. In 2020, 382,000 Chinese students with F-1 and M-1 visas studied at American schools, accounting for 31% of all international students, but that was a 20% decline from 2019.
  
  

 2 April 2021

US to begin processing suspended worker visas

• The Biden administration will resume issuing visas to overseas workers after allowing a Trump-era ban to expire on 31st March 2021, in a further easing of coronavirus pandemic immigration restrictions.
  
  Former president Donald Trump banned new issuance of worker visas commonly used by multinational businesses last year in a bid to force companies to hire US workers as unemployment levels soared during the pandemic.
  
  The state department confirmed on Thursday that it would begin processing applications for the previously suspended visas, and asked people who had been rejected because of the presidential ban to reapply.
  
  It added, however, that US embassies and consulates were only providing mission-critical visa services, which were being offered on a post by post basis.
  
  Trump's visa ban affected a range of visas including categories J, which are used by au pairs, L and H-1B, which are widely used by technology companies. The ban was opposed by US business groups, which criticised it as harmful to the economy.