New US visa curbs to hit Indians most

Indians will be the largest group to be affected by the new US decision on six major categories of working visas, which will come into effect from July 16.

According to the new rules, holders of 'E' (traders and investors), 'H'(professionals), 'I'(journalists), 'L' (corporate workers), 'O' (people with particular skills) and 'P' (entertainers, artists, athletes) categories of visas will no longer be able to renew their papers in the US and will have to travel to a US embassy abroad to be fingerprinted before their visas are renewed.

Janice Jacobs, deputy assistant secretary of state for visa services, bureau of consular affairs, has admitted that Indians will the largest group that will be affected following the US move.

Last year, 50,000 visas were issued under these categories, of these 46 per cent were given to Indians, Jacob said.

When asked why Indians have been targeted when not a single Indian has so far been linked to terrorist activities, Jacob said the rules were not aimed at any particular nationality.

"A lot of these visas that we renew are people working here in the information technology field and there are a lot of Indians doing that and I think that is why it turned out that way," she said.

"This is not aimed at any particular nationality. I think that Indians have over the years benefited the most from this programme, but it just turned out that way," he added.

"Again, this is being done primarily because of a congressional requirement that we have for collecting biometrics and we are also doing more interviews of applicants now than we did in the past. Again, we don't conduct these interviews here in the US," Jacobs said.

"What we have been told by our inspector-general, what we have been told by Congress and the general accounting office is that basically what we were doing in the US was not what we are now doing overseas and that we needed to fix that. But, really, it is because we cannot collect the fingerprints in the US. That is the primary reason why we are having to end this service," he added.

US visa blues

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VISA CATEGORIES TO BE AFFECTED:

• E (traders and investors)
• H (professionals)
• IL (corporate workers)
• O (people with particular skills)
• P (entertainers, artists, athletes)