Blinken blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for a backlog of visa applications from Indian nationals.
Amid growing concerns of surging COVID-19 cases, the US has announced that it will waive the in-person interview requirement for a range of visa applicants during the entire year in 2022, including for H-1B workers and students, many of whom are from India. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
Three years after the horrific massacre of Sikh worshippers at the Oak Creek, Wisconsin, gurdwara by a gunman with ties to supremacist organisations, a federal system to help track hate crimes against Sikhs, Hindu, Arab American communities has been formalised.
Under these reforms, the H-1B programme will prioritise those workers who are offered the highest wage, ensuring that the highest-skilled applicants are admitted, the White House said.
The Indian IT companies, which account for a large number of H-1B applications, are likely to face the additional financial burden because of this proposed increase in H-1B filing fees.
Countries across the world -- from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada to Singapore and New Zealand, are witnessing phenomenal strides by Indian-origin politicians, who are now taking on influential and prominent roles in governments and cabinets.
Australian authorities scrambled on Sunday to file a legal defence of their decision to bar entry to tennis world number one Novak Djokovic over his COVID-19 vaccination status, as the Serbian superstar spent his fourth day in immigration detention.
The US state department, which issued the revised travel advisory, on Wednesday said that the exemptions have been given under the national interest category.
The Biden administration has announced that it is delaying the H-1B policy of the previous Trump administration on allocation of the popular foreign work visas by continuing with the lottery system until December 31, 2021, to give the immigration agency more time to develop, test and implement the modifications to the registration system. On January 7, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced to do away with the traditional lottery system in deciding the successful applicants for the H-1B visas. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
"Removing H-4 Dependent Spouses From the Class of Aliens Eligible for Employment Authorisation," said the US department of homeland security's unified agenda in the federal register notification of its semi-annual regulatory agenda.
In sectors like IT, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, and transportation, the H-1B One Workforce grant programme would be used to upskill the present workforce and train a new generation of workers.
Newly-elected Conservative Party leader and prime minister in waiting Liz Truss is among the senior British politicians known for championing deeper India-UK strategic and economic ties, describing them as a "sweet spot" of global trade dynamics.
By naming the 55-year-old lawyer and politician from California as his running mate, Biden made history by selecting the first Black woman to compete on a major party's presidential ticket. If elected she would be the first ever women to be the vice president of the US and the first ever Indian-American and African vice president of the country.
This is a culmination of the joint investigation carried out by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
Janne-Mette Johansson, a Norwegian national on a tourist visa, came under the scanner of Bureau of Immigration authorities over her suspected participation in an anti- Citizenship Amendment Act protest in the Kochi three days ago.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was again "detained" at an United States airport, the third time in seven years that he has been stopped by US immigration officials at the country's airports. However, outrage over the incident prompted US Ambassador to India Richard Rahul Verma to apologise on behalf of his government.
Trump told reporters that his administration will not tolerate firing of hardworking Americans in pursuit of cheap foreign labour.
India ranks 11th among countries of origin for Deferred Action for Children Arrival students.
India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.
The proposals aims to impose new restrictions to prevent abuse and misuse of H-1B visas, besides ending the provision of granting extension for those who already have a green card.
Djokovic, a vocal opponent of vaccine mandates hoping to win his 21st Grand Slam at the Australian Open, has been holed up since Thursday in a modest Melbourne hotel after his visa was cancelled due to problems with the exemption.
Walt Disney staff were reportedly replaced with Indians holding H-1B.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first-ever in-person meeting with President Joe Biden raised a number of issues involving the Indian community in America, including access for Indian professionals in the US and speaking about the H-1B visas, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said.
The new information required by the Department of Labour is significant because before sponsoring a foreign worker for the H-1B visa, the company needs to get its labour application approved by it.
As a result, about 1,80,000 would be eligible to work in the US.
The plea was made before the Department Related Standing Committee for Subordinate Legislation as according to the Manual on Parliamentary Work, the rules for any legislation should be framed within six months of the presidential assent or an extension must be sought.
Anthony Kreiter-Rhoads of Tracy was arrested Saturday and charged with homicide in the death of Singh.
The bill, however, has to be passed by the Senate, wherein the Republicans enjoy a majority, before it can be signed into law by the US President Donald Trump.
The income tax department will share PAN and bank account details of any entity with 10 investigative and intelligence agencies, including the CBI and NIA, under the integrated counter-terrorism platform NATGRID, according to an official order.
More than 60 individuals and entities, an overwhelming number of them Indians, were on Thursday charged by the Justice Department for allegedly participating in a multi-million dollar scam involving call centres based in India which conned thousands of American citizens.
'Women's voices are too high or too low, or they are seen as too short or too tall, or too fat or too thin, to be great leaders.' 'These judgments wear us down.'
Labelling All India United Democratic Front chief Badruddin Ajmal as the 'enemy of Assam', state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday asserted that he is an extremist in protecting Indian and the Assamese culture.
A group of Indian workers in the US have filed a lawsuit in a district court against the Swaminarayan sect BAPS, accusing it of human trafficking and wage law violations during the construction of a massive temple in New Jersey.
The USCIS announcement indicated that the US government is going to be tough and stringent in approval of H-1B visas this year.
'To be an immigrant, a South Asian immigrant of colour, a woman to be included in the Portrait Gallery... it really says that we are the country where people look for the people who make a positive impact and celebrate them,' Nooyi, 64, told reporters during the portrait gallery induction ceremony on Sunday.
ITServe's lawsuit against the USCIS alleges that the agency has no authority to misinterpret the existing regulations and shorten the approval durations.
The woman fell into a week-long coma and had to undergo liver transplant after consuming the poisonous mushrooms.
'I am still the girl who grew up in a close family in Madras, in the South of India, and I am deeply connected to the lessons and culture of my youth. I am also the woman who arrived in the US at age twenty-three to study and work and, somehow, rose to lead an iconic company, a journey that I believe is possible only in America. I belong in both worlds,' says the ex-Pepsico chief in her memoir
The government has asked for a 60-day pause in the case to 'allow incoming leadership personnel adequate time to consider the issues'.
The US officials informed that out of more than 1000 students, who were being considered for transfer to other universities, 435 transfers were approved, 145 were denied and about an equal number were issued Notices of Intention to Deny (NOIDs), the Indian embassy said in a statement.
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