During this week’s state visit by Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, the Biden administration is planning to make it easier for citizens of India to live and work in the United States, sources familiar with the matter have said.
According to Reuters, the US State Department could announce changes to its work immigration rules as soon as this week.
One of the sources said that as part of the new rules, a small number of Indian citizens as well as other foreigners holding H-1B visas will be able to renew their visas in the US without being required to travel abroad, VisaGuide.World reports.
Moreover, another US official said that the country acknowledges the advantages of mobility and, at the same time, stressed that the objective is to address the matter through a diverse range of approaches.
“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 has already been working very hard to find creative ways to make changes to things,” the statement of the other US official reads.
Reuters explains that as for visa types that would qualify or the timing of the pilot launch, the spokesperson of the US State Department declined to comment.
Nonetheless, the spokesperson said that the pilot would initially begin with a small number of cases with the intention to scale the initiative in the next years.
While changes are planned, the steps will not be finalized until officially announced, meaning that the authorities are yet to make an official announcement on the matter.
Citizens of India are the most active users of the US H-1B program. Indian citizens made up 73 percent of around 441,000 H-1B workers in the US in the 2022 fiscal year.
Reuters notes every year, the government of the US makes 65,000 H-1B visas available to companies that are seeking highly skilled foreign workers. Moreover, the government also makes available each year 20,000 visas for workers holding advanced degrees.
These visas are valid for a period of three years, and once this period is over, they can be renewed for another three years.
In addition to the above-mentioned, one of the sources also said that the pilot program would also include some workers who hold an L-1 Visa.
Regarding the complaints made by the Indian authorities about their citizens being subject to long waiting times, the sources said that a separate initiative to cleat the backlog of visa applications is showing signs of progress.
