Immigration experts question demand to restrict the issue of fresh H-1B visas
2 min read
Immigration experts have criticized Immigration Voice’s stance on new H-1B visas for Indian nationals.
The Indian American lobby group has urged the government of US President Joe Biden to not issue new H-1B visas to those Indian nationals not effectively in the nation, till the existing limits on green cards – permanent residence permits (PERMs) – are done away with.
Indians face the longest wait times for an employment-based green card. Every year, the United States issues 85,000 new H-1B visas, of which almost 70% are given to Indian nationals.
These H-1B visas permit workers to enter the United States to work in high-skilled occupations. Regularly with the intention of ultimately receiving lawful permanent residency. But per-country limits result in Indians nationals receiving only 8,400 of the 120,000 employment-based green cards available each year.
“Immigration Voice is presently calling the Biden government to utilize its power under INA Section 212(f) to exclude any new individual born in India who are not currently in the United States lawfully from getting a new H-1B visa for the first time in Fiscal Year 2022. Moreover, Immigration Voice calls to quit giving such new H-1B visas until the discriminatory per county limits on Employment-Based Green Cards are finally lifted and immigrants from India are no longer treated as indentured servants in the United States,” said Aman Kapoor, president of Immigration Voice, in a statement.
Immigration experts demand to restrict issue of new H-1B visas
Immigration experts have, however, questioned this rationale.
I don’t understand how blocking the entry of new H-1B workers will hasten their green card process. The two have not corresponded,” said Poorvi Chothani, managing partner at LawQuest, an immigration law firm.
“It sure is a broken system where individuals are stuck in the green card queue for decades. Yet not giving new temporary visas won’t assist them with getting their green cards quicker. And it is not a given that all H-1B workers will be on a green card track when they arrive in the US,” Chothani said.
The immigration lobby group has called for a rationalization of the green card process. To ‘protect future Indian immigrants from the industrialized process of wholesale exploitation.’
[Maintaining H-1B and L Status While Waiting for a Green Card]
A few families face separation once their kids turn 21, as they no longer become eligible to stay in the country as dependents minus a green card. There are more than 800,000 Indians in line for an employment-based green card – almost 70% of the 1.2 million backlogs.
As indicated by a paper by the US think-tank CATO Institute. Indian employer-sponsored applicants face an eight-decade wait for green cards.
Attempts to pass a new immigration bill that would considerably ease the backlog have not yet been successful.
