US eases H1B visa rules after PM Modi’s visit
In the fiscal year 2022, 73% of the almost 442,000 H-1B employees were Indian nationals, who are by far the program's most active users.
The US Government will be easing H1B visa rules, after PM Modi’s visit, for skilled workers to remain or enter in the country. The State Department is likely to announce on Thursday that a small number of Indians and other foreign individuals will be able to renew their H1B visas in the US without having to travel anywhere. One of the sources said that this program could be expanded in the coming years.
Each year the US Government makes 65,000 H1B visas available for companies that are looking for skilled workers, and an additional 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees. The visas can be renewed for another three years after its initial three year limit ends.
Companies like Amazon, TCS, Infosys, Meta, and Alphabet have the most number of H1B workers according to data. “We all recognize that the mobility of our people is a huge asset to us. And so our goal is to approach that in a sort of multifaceted way. The State Department already has been working very hard to find creative ways to make changes to things,” said a US official.
The program will also open up for some workers with L-1 visas, these visas are available to people transferring within a company to a position in the US. According to sources, a different project to reduce the backlog of visa requests at American embassies in India is finally making headway. This initiative is anticipated to come up in meetings between the delegations of the two nations this week in Washington.
The Biden administration has been working for months to increase Indians’ access to visas in an effort to avoid Congress’ lack of political will to enact comprehensive immigration reform. In part to better compete with China, President Joe Biden wants to bring together the two biggest democracies in the world. With this, the long concerns Indians had with difficulty in receiving US visas might come to an end as things start to look better.
