The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency which receives and determines the successful applications for H-1B visas, said yesterday that it received 199,000 H-1B applications for the 2018 fiscal year.
In a new twist to the Lalit Modi and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj row, newly-emerged documents show that Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje agreed to secretly testify in the former's United Kingdom immigration application in 2011.
Canadian Immigration officers are concerned about increasing fraudulent documents, including papers for funerals of nearest relatives that people in Punjab file with visa applications in several categories. These papers lead to an increase in volume of their work several fold.
The United Kingdom Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a challenge against immigration rules requiring people to speak English before joining their spouses in Britain, a landmark ruling which could affect thousands of immigrants from countries like India.
It alleged that immigrants in Britain are forced to pay excessive fees for Home Office Services. The Home Office is presently conducting a charging consultation to further increase the existing 'unwarranted high fees', it said.
The US Consulate officials on Tuesday announced that a new online visa application process would be launched from February 1, wherein non-immigrant visa applications will be submitted using an electronic form.
'There's a lot of confusion. It started because the President's tweet was all-encompassing.' 'It has been watered down over the last few days though to more narrow classes of immigrants.'
This non-refundable fee will support the new electronic registration system to make the H-1B cap selection process more efficient for both petitioners and the federal agency, USCIS said.
Lower numbers signal that that companies, especially the technology services firms, are steadily reducing the dependency on non-immigrant visas.
The US on Thursday introduced a new facility for premium processing of permanent residency, or Green Card, applications from foreign nationals that are willing to make heavy investment in US, resulting in creation of jobs.
Unnecessary victimisation may "reflect in the bilateral relations", the Bombay high court said on Thursday while ordering the authorities to issue exit permit to a Chinese woman who was acquitted in a gold smuggling case yet could not leave India.
Some foreign guest workers in the US will be able to re-submit their applications for the H1-B visa, the most sought-after non-immigrant visa among Indian IT professionals, if their petition was solely rejected because it was based on the initial registration period, according to a federal agency. According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), such re-submission of applications is for those whose applications have been rejected or administratively closed solely because the requested start date was after October 1, 2020. The H-1B visa allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
Obama used his executive power to announce a series of administrative measures to provide legal status to over five million illegal immigrants in the country, including those from India.
Spokesman Sandy Logan said racism and violence issue against foreign students were not mainly to be blamed for the slide in visa applications. It was also due to stricter and tougher scrutiny of applications and the immigration department has been rejecting a higher number of applications from India, he said.
In a bid to tighten visa rules, a draft bill in the British Parliament proposes to replace the five current application categories of immigrants with a clear-cut concept -- 'permission' -- to be in the country.
As of now, about 66 per cent of the green cards are given to those with family ties and only 12 per cent are based on skills.
The upcoming Delhi Assembly elections are set to be a thrilling contest between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Congress. The BJP is focusing on its "Parivartan" (change) slogan and a targeted campaign against AAP over corruption allegations, while AAP is highlighting the credibility of its leader, Arvind Kejriwal, and his promises to deliver on his promises. The Congress, seeking to reclaim its lost footing in the national capital, is also campaigning with a renewed vigor.
"It's working out very nicely. You see it in the airports, you see it all over. It's working out very nicely," Trump said.
rediffGURU Geeta Ratra offers expert advice on international courses, student visas and immigration processes.
The Biden administration has eased norms by releasing policy guidance on the eligibility criteria for those waiting for green cards to work and stay in America, days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US.
Miller insisted that any legal immigration system should not displace American workers and there should be no abuse of 'fraud'.
Currently, the NRC is being updated under the strict monitoring of the Supreme Court in Assam and July 31 has been set as a deadline for final publication of the registered data.
The applicants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi faiths will also have to furnish documents to prove that they entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
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.
"For most Americans, the beginning of April signifies the start of spring. For others, it means Opening Day of the baseball season. But for US employers, April first marks the day that US Citizenship and Immigration Services begins accepting new H-1B visa petitions for 2009," it said. "And once again, America's companies will be left in the lurch as the sparse annual allotment of H-1B visas will be reached on the very first day," the association said.
The changes would focus on overhauling of the queueing system that identifies occupations in demand and creates a points system. The immigration minister would have the new legal authority to set a maximum number of visas for a single occupation.
The United States would handle the visa application of the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as per the country's immigration laws, a top US diplomat said.
Ramaswamy's stance on H-1B visas is reminiscent of the 2016 Trump campaign, when then-candidate Donald Trump, who has also hired a number of foreign workers under H-1B visas for his businesses, took a hardline stance on these foreign workers before later softening his rhetoric.
On July 25, Ottawa said they are reversing their 10-year old policy and in future there won't be any objection to Singh and Kaur as last names, despite the fact these are too common names.
The Biden administration has proposed a massive hike in immigration fees, including the much sought-after H-1B visas for high-skilled foreign workers, which is very popular among Indian tech professionals. Under the proposed rule, published by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Wednesday, the application for the H-1B visa increases from $460 to $780, and L-1 from $460 to $1,385. The application fee for O-1 visas has been proposed to increase from $460 to $1,055.
Congress said that PM's response on the issues of corruption and black money was "very disappointing" after his "tall promises" made during the Lok Sabha polls.
The 20-year-old arrested accused, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, allegedly planned a terrorist attack in New York City around October 7 "with the intent of slaughtering in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible," attorney general Merrick B Garland said, as per the statement.
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered at airports across the US to protest the ban announced by President Donald Trump on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, extending solidarity to those affected as chaos and fear gripped individuals trying to enter the country.
Aryan Anand had submitted fake and falsified documents to secure admission into Lehigh University, a private research university in Pennsylvania for the 2023-2024 academic year.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has received about 22,000 petitions for the much sought after H-1B work visas in the first four days after it started accepting applications on April 2, officials said.
Aseem Chhabra lists his favourite 2024 films that he watched at film festivals held in Berlin, Cannes, Toronto and India.
Officials said the Citizenship and Immigration Services would not issue daily update on number of applications received, but will make an announcement when the cap is reached.
The Biden administration's failure in stopping two major wars and several minor ones was seen as a major disaster by many Americans and the world at large, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
An influential immigration advocacy group representing Indian-Americans on Thursday urged the Biden administration not to issue the most sought-after H-1B work visa to any individual born in India, till the time the discriminatory country-cap on green cards or permanent legal residency is removed. The current per-country cap on issuing of green cards in the US has resulted in Indian professionals, mostly from the IT sector, having to wait for decades for their legal permanent residency. Issuing new H-1B visas to more Indians would add to this agonising painful wait for green cards, Immigration Voice said in a statement.
