In a huge relief for H-1B visa holders, a White House-backed bipartisan deal has been unveiled under which automatic work authorisation would be granted to about 100,000 H-4 visa holders, who are spouses and children of a certain category of H-1B visa holders. The National Security Agreement that was announced on Sunday after long negotiations between the Republican and the Democratic leadership in the US Senate also provides a solution to about 250,000 aged-out children of H-1B visa holders. The move comes as good news for hundreds and thousands of Indian technology professionals who are waiting in a painstakingly long wait for a Green Card, in the absence of which their spouses cannot work and their aged-out children face the threat of deportation. A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently. The per-country caps are numerical limits on t
Another Indian student in the United States named Shreyas Reddy has been found dead in Cincinnati, Ohio, making it the third such case within a week
Without immigration, the white population in the U.S. would have declined last year. Immigration also propelled the expansion of the Asian population, which was the fastest-growing race or ethnic group last year in the U.S., while births outpacing deaths helped propel growth in Hispanic, Black, tribal and Hawaiian populations. Population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau show what drove changes in different race, ethnic and age groups last year, as well as since the start of COVID-19's spread in the U.S. in April 2020. The country had grown to 333.2 million people by the middle of last year, a 0.4% increase over the previous year, according to the 2022 population estimates. For white residents in the U.S., immigration drove the expansion. Without it, the white population, including those who identify as more than one race, would have dropped last year by more than 85,000 people instead of growing meagerly by more than 388,000 residents, or 0.1%. When the focus i
In the year 2022, the US issued a total of 10,885 EB-5 visas and Indians were the second largest applicants after Chinese nationals. China accounts for 90 per cent of EB-5 visas
The opposition Republican party has used comprehensive immigration reform as a political stunt and a political tool and they are not interested in resolving the issue, the White House has said. As we've seen, Republicans have continued to use this as a political stunt, a political tool, and not actually come to the table to have a conversation on how to protect Dreamers and farm workers. You know, more immigration judges and asylum officers are needed. More funding for border security is needed, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference on Monday. This is something that we have put forward in that legislation and so much more. They don't want to do that. They want to do political stunts, as we've seen from governors and mayors across the country, she alleged responding to a question on comprehensive immigration reform in particular on legal immigration. President Joe Biden on the very first day of his administration, put forth ...
US updates immigration rules: 'Dreamers' who came to the US legally with their parents stand to benefit
The policy has been applied about 2.5 million times since March 2020. It was to expire on December 21, 2022
The Biden administration on Thursday said it would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the US-Mexico border illegally, a major expansion of an existing effort to stop Venezuelans attempting to enter the US. Instead, the administration will accept 30,000 people per month from the four nations for two years and offer the ability to legally work, as long as they come legally, have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks. These four affected nations are among those for whom migrant border crossings have risen most sharply, with no easy way to quickly return migrants to their home countries. Do not, do not just show up at the border," Biden said Thursday. Stay where you are and apply legally from there. It was Biden's boldest move yet to confront spiralling arrivals at the US border with Mexico, a major change to immigration rules that will stand even if the US Supreme Court ends a Trump-era public health law that allows American ..
The Supreme Court is keeping pandemic-era limits on immigration in place indefinitely, dashing hopes of immigration advocates who had been anticipating their end this week. In a ruling Tuesday, the Supreme Court extended a temporary stay that Chief Justice John Roberts issued last week. Under the court's order, the case will be argued in February and the stay will be maintained until the justices decide the case. The limits were put in place under then-President Donald Trump at the beginning of the pandemic. Under the restrictions, officials have expelled asylum-seekers inside the United States 2.5 million times and turned away most people who requested asylum at the border on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The restrictions are often referred to as Title 42 in reference to a 1944 public health law. "We are deeply disappointed for all the desperate asylum seekers who will continue to suffer because of Title 42, but we will continue fighting to eventually end the policy
Three buses of recent migrant families arrived from Texas near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in record-setting cold on Christmas Eve. Texas authorities have not confirmed their involvement, but the bus dropoffs are in line with previous actions by border-state governors calling attention to the Biden administration's immigration policies. The buses that arrived late Saturday outside the vice president's residence were carrying around 110 to 130 people, according to Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, a relief agency working with the city of Washington to serve thousands of migrants who have been dropped off in recent months. Local organizers had expected the buses to arrive Sunday but found out Saturday that the group would get to Washington early, Laborde said. The people on board included young children. Some were wearing T-shirts despite temperatures hovering around 15 degrees Fahrenheit (-9 degrees Celsius). It was the coldest Christmas Eve on
Hairdresser Grisel Garcs survived a harrowing, four-month journey from her native Venezuela through tropical jungles, migrant detention centres in southern Mexico and then jolting railcar rides north toward the U.S. border. Now on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande across from El Paso, Texas, she's anxiously awaiting a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on asylum restrictions expected to affect her and thousands of other migrants at crossings along some 3,100 kilometers of border from Texas to California. And she's doing so while living outside as winter temperatures plunge over much of the U.S. and across the border. She told of fleeing economic hardship only to find more hardship, such as now having to shiver through temperatures colder than any she's ever experienced. Riding the train was bad. Here the situation is even worse. You just turn yourself over to God's mercy, said Garcs, who left a school-aged daughter behind, hoping to reach the U.S. with her husband. Their savings
The US Supreme Court has temporarily halted the expiration of an asylum-limiting policy which was set to end this week
The affected workers have now created a WhatsApp group to share their concerns. A majority of the about 300 people in the group are from India, the report said
The Golden or EB-5 visa allows foreign investors to fast-track their application for permanent residency in the US
The Biden administration has officially undone a Trump-era rule that barred immigrants from gaining legal residency if they had utilized certain government benefits, allowing for a return to a previous policy with a narrower scope. The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday said a new regulation for the public charge rule would go into effect in late December, although the Biden administration had already stopped applying the previous version last year. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that the shift ensures fair and humane treatment. Consistent with America's bedrock values, we will not penalize individuals for choosing to access the health benefits and other supplemental government services available to them, he said. The public charge regulation bars people from getting green cards if they would be burdens to the United States. For years prior to the Trump administration, that was interpreted as being primarily dependent on cash assistance,
"Now that the court has decided that those who request asylum in the US can wait in the US... We see it as a good thing," Lopez Obrador told reporters
Immigrant advocates and experts on Monday said the suspension of Biden's order will only sow fear among immigrant communities
The Jumpstart Our Legal Immigration System Act, proposes to recapture about 222,000 unused family-sponsored visas and about 157,000 employment-based visas
The move, if included in the reconciliation package and passed into law, is expected to help thousands of Indian IT professionals
In 2018, The Trump administration gave its immigration officials more power to reject H-1B visa applications outright.