Category: Immigration

India and the US discussed the excessive delay in the issuance of business visas to Indians, and the Americans showed good receptivity to the issue, according to visiting Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal.

Addressing a press conference after participating in the 13th India-US Trade Policy Forum in Washington, the minister said, “We found very good resonance to our request that issuance of business visas which is taking a long time back home in India is an area which needs to be expedited, so that business persons interested on both sides, need to have faster processing of business visas so that trade, investment does not suffer.”

“We found very good resonance to our request that issuance of business visas which is taking a long time back home in India is an area which needs to be expedited so that business persons interested in both sides — the US and India — need to have faster processing so that trade and investment and business does not suffer,” Goyal said at the conclusion of the India-US Trade Policy Forum meeting, which he co-chaired with Katherine Tai, USTR Ambassador.

“India has made the request to the US that they may speed up the issuance of regular business visas where people come in for short trips to pursue their trade and business interest,” he added as quoted by ANI.

Goyal further underlined that the movement of students, skilled workers, professionals, investors, and business travelers is expanding between the two countries.

He also said India is grateful that the US was able to process the student visas on an expedited basis so that in the post covid scenario, Indian students would come to the US to pursue their studies in the fall of 2022 semester.

Piyush Goyal is on an official visit to New York and Washington DC from 9-11 January to participate in India-US Trade Policy Forum. His visit included delegation-level talks and a one-to-one meeting with US Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai.

This request to expiate business visas comes a week after State Department said that the US embassy and consulates in India have broken their record as nearly, 1,25,000 student visas were issued in the fiscal year 2022.

Henley & Partners released the latest results of the Henley Passport Index 2023 with Japan retaining the top spot for fifth consecutive year while India ranks 85th, an improvement of two ranks as compared to last year.

The Henley Passport Index, which is based on International Air Transport Association data, is the original ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

A trio of Asian passports offer their holders greater global travel freedom than those of any other countries, according to a new quarterly report released by London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners.

Japanese citizens enjoy visa-free or visa-on-demand access to a record 193 destinations around the world, just ahead of Singapore and South Korea whose citizens can freely visit 192.

And now that Asia-Pacific is opening up post-Covid, its citizens are more likely to be making use of that travel freedom again.

The passport index has ranked India at the 85th position, meaning that Indian passport holders can access 59 countries without needing a visa. India has climbed up in the ranking by two positions from the past year, when it was at the 87th position. Those holding Japan’s passports can access 193 countries without requiring a visa.

The UK and US didn’t move in 2023 from 6th and 7th place. They scored 187 and 186 respectively out of the 227 countries included in the Index. It seems unlikely these countries will reclaim the top spots they held around a decade ago.

The Index finds that only 17 per cent of countries give their passport holders access to more than 80 per cent of the world without a visa.Global travel is now at around 75% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest release by Henley Passport Index, which is based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Below the Asian top three, a glut of European countries sit near the top of the leaderboard. Germany and Spain are tied on 190 destinations, followed by Finland, Italy, Luxembourg on 189.

Then there’s Austria, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden all tied in fifth place, while France, Ireland, Portugal and United Kingdom are at No. 6.

New Zealand and the United States make an appearance at No. 7, alongside Belgium, Norway, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

Afghan nationals sit at the bottom of the index once again, and can access just 27 countries without requiring a visa in advance.

Other indexes

Henley & Partner’s list is one of several indexes created by financial firms to rank global passports according to the access they provide to their citizens.

The Henley Passport Index ranks 199 passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. It’s updated in real time throughout the year, as and when visa policy changes come into effect.

Arton Capital’s Passport Index takes into consideration the passports of 193 United Nations member countries and six territories — ROC Taiwan, Macau (SAR China), Hong Kong (SAR China), Kosovo, Palestinian Territory and the Vatican. Territories annexed to other countries are excluded.

It’s also updated in real time throughout the year, but its data is gathered by close monitoring of individual governments’ portals. It’s a tool “for people who travel, to provide accurate, simple-to-acess information for their travel needs,” Arton Capital’s founder Armand Arton told CNN in December.

Arton’s Global Passport Power Rank 2023 puts the United Arab Emirates in the top spot, with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 181.

As for second place, that’s held by 11 countries, most of which are in Europe: Germany, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and South Korea.

The United States and the UK are at No.3, alongside Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Norway, Poland, Ireland and New Zealand.

The best passports to hold in 2023, according to the Henley Passport Index

1. Japan (193 destinations)
2. Singapore, South Korea (192 destinations)
3. Germany, Spain (190 destinations)
4. Finland, Italy, Luxembourg (189 destinations)
5. Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden (188 destinations)
6. France, Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom (187 destinations)
7. Belgium, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, United States, Czech Republic (186 destinations)
8. Australia, Canada, Greece, Malta (185 destinations)
9. Hungary, Poland (184 destinations)
10. Lithuania, Slovakia (183 destinations)

The worst passports to hold in 2023, according to the Henley Passport Index

Several countries around the world have visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 40 or fewer countries. These include:

102. North Korea (40 destinations)
103. Nepal, Palestinian territory (38 destinations)
104. Somalia (35 destinations)
105. Yemen (34 destinations)
106. Pakistan (32 destinations)
107. Syria (30 destinations)
108. Iraq (29 destinations)
109. Afghanistan (27 destinations)

The yearly Index from global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners uses exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to rank the world’s 199 passports. It is based on the number of destinations their holders can access without a visa.

If no visa is required, the country scores 1 point for its passport. This applies if citizens can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit or an electronic travel authority (ETA) when entering the destination.

The Henley Passport Index is the original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. The index is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – the largest, most accurate travel information database – and enhanced by Henley & Partners’ research team.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to adjust certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees. The new fees would allow USCIS to more fully recover its operating costs, reestablish and maintain timely case processing, and prevent the accumulation of future case backlogs. USCIS receives approximately 96 percent of its funding from filing fees, not from congressional appropriations.

The proposed fee rule is the result of a comprehensive fee review at USCIS. That review determined that the agency’s current fees, which have remained unchanged since 2016, fall far short of recovering the full cost of agency operations. USCIS generally publishes a fee rule biennially, and proposes these changes to account for the expansion of humanitarian programs, federally mandated pay raises, additional staffing requirements, and other essential investments.

In 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a dramatic reduction in receipts of new applications, resulting in a temporary drop in revenue by 40 percent. The combination of depleted cash reserves, a temporary hiring freeze, and workforce attrition has reduced the agency’s capacity to timely adjudicate cases, particularly as incoming caseloads rebound to pre-pandemic levels. Increasing demand for low- or no-fee humanitarian programs has added to these fiscal challenges.

The proposed rule would increase some fees, including a modest increase in the fee for certain naturalization applications, while preserving existing fee waiver eligibility for low-income and vulnerable populations and adding new fee exemptions for certain humanitarian programs. If finalized, the proposed rule would decrease or minimally increase fees for more than one million low-income filers each year.

“In addition to improving customer service operations and managing the incoming workload, USCIS must continue to fulfill our growing humanitarian mission, upholding fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou. “This proposed rule allows USCIS to more fully recover operating costs for the first time in six years and will support the Administration’s effort to rebuild the legal immigration system.”

New measures include a proposal to incorporate biometrics costs into the main benefit fee and remove the separate biometric services fee; establish separate fees for each nonimmigrant classification covered by Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Workers; change the premium processing timeframe from 15 calendar days to 15 business days; and institute lower fees for certain forms filed online. The proposed rule would not change fee waiver eligibility requirements. The projected revenues resulting from the proposed rule would allow USCIS to increase the number of adjudicators processing applications, implement technology improvements, and increase support provided to individuals seeking information and assistance from USCIS.

The 60-day public comment period starts following publication of the NPRM in the Federal Register. Fees will not change until the final rule goes into effect, after the public has had the opportunity to comment and USCIS finalizes the fee schedule in response to such comments. USCIS will host a public engagement session on the proposed fee rule on January 11, 2023.

Canada has processed an all-time high of 4.8 million visa applications in 2022, nearly twice the 2.5 million processed during the same period last year, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

On a monthly basis, Canada is now processing more visitor visa applications reducing its pandemic backlog by nearly half-a-million applications in just four months.

In November alone, over 260,000 visitor visas were processed, in contrast to the 180,000 applications that were processed in 2019 at the same time.

“Our government has reduced its pandemic backlogs by nearly half a million, while also processing a record-breaking number of immigration applications this year. Our actions are ensuring that we can continue to welcome and support newcomers who come to Canada to work, study, visit, or settle here,” Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, said in a statement.

The 4.8 million applications include 670,000 study permits, 700,000 work permits, and hundreds of thousands of visitor visas, according to IRCC data.

The largest number of applications were processed under the temporary residence category with over 670,000 study permits cleared by November 30, compared to more than 500,000 during the same time period last year.

Most new study permits are now being processed within the 60-day service standard, the IRCC informed.

Close to 700,000 work permits were processed by November 30, compared to about 223,000 during the same period in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Canada welcomed a record-breaking 405,000 new permanent residents in 2021, and with this development, it remains on track to reach its target of more than 431,000 new permanent residents.

Also, permanent residents can now expect shorter wait times when renewing their permanent resident cards as IRCC has reduced its pandemic backlog of applications for card renewals by 99 per cent.

Canada welcomed approximately 251,000 new citizens from April to November, as a result of which more than 70 per cent of applications in the citizenship inventory are now within service standards.

To address acute labour shortage, Canada unveiled its ambitious immigration plan last month to welcome half-a-million immigrants each year by 2025.

As of December 2, Canada’s immigration backlog came down to just over 2.2 million.

IRCC says it wants to have a less than 50 per cent backlog across all lines of business by the end of March 2023.

To achieve this, the Canadian citizenship body began transition towards 100 per cent digital applications for most permanent resident programs on September 23.

It also hopes to make all citizenship applications digital by the end of this year, including those for minors under 18. (IANS)

Canada has initiated a significant move which will benefit Indian professionals and other foreigners as it expanded its work permits to family members of temporary international workers from next year.

While addressing the reporters December 2, 2022, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada Sean Fraser announced that his department is extending work permits to family members of temporary foreign workers. on Friday. Prior to this announcement, spouses were only eligible for a work permit if the principal applicant was working in a high-skill occupation.

This temporary measure aims to improve the emotional well-being, physical health and financial stability of workers by keeping families together. As a result, it is expected that the worker will better integrate into their overall work environment and community, according to the press statement released by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Starting in January 2023, through a temporary 2-year measure, Canada will expand eligibility to work in Canada to spouses and working-age children through a phased approach for workers at all skill levels. This would include families of workers in health care, trades and hospitality, for example.

As a result of this new approach, it is estimated that family members of more than 200,000 foreign workers could begin working in Canada, offering a greater opportunity for both foreign workers seeking to work in Canada and for employers addressing their labour needs.

“Everywhere I go, employers across the country continue to identify a lack of workers as their biggest obstacle. Today’s announcement will help employers find the workers they need to fill their labour gaps by expanding work permits to family members at all skill levels, resulting in family members of over 200,000 foreign workers being able to work in Canada. Our government is going to continue helping employers overcome labour shortages, while also supporting the well-being of workers and uniting their families,” the statement quoted Canadian Minister as saying.

“Labour is the number 1 challenge facing Canada’s tourism sector as we position ourselves for post-pandemic growth. Today, our government is bringing in innovative, family-based solutions to resolve this issue and help our tourism partners grow to meet the global demand for Canadian experiences from coast to coast to coast,” he added.

After a sharp drop in naturalizations in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, immigrants in the United States are becoming citizens in numbers not seen for more than a decade.

More than 900,000 immigrants became U.S. citizens during the 2022 fiscal year, according to a Pew Research Center estimate based on government data released for the first three quarters of the year. That annual total would be the third-highest on record and the most in any fiscal year since 2008, when more than a million people were naturalized. Federal fiscal years run from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

The rebound in naturalizations aligns with upticks in other measures of legal immigration since the spring of 2020, when pandemic-related restrictions, border closures and office shutdowns were widespread. Government data shows a rise since then in the number of immigrants receiving green cards as new lawful permanent residents, as well as a partial rebound in arrivals by foreign students, tourists and other lawful temporary migrants.  

Here are five key facts about naturalization trends and U.S. naturalized citizens, based mainly on a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Department of Homeland Security and the Census Bureau. Immigrants generally are eligible to become U.S. citizens if they are at least 18 years old and a lawful permanent resident who has lived continuously in the U.S. for at least five years, or three years if married to a U.S. citizen. They must meet certain conditions that include a background check and, in most cases, must pass English language and civics tests. Citizenship confers privileges and obligations that include the right to vote, serve on a jury, sponsor other family members and apply for government benefits and jobs.

Quarterly naturalizations are back to where they were before the coronavirus outbreak began in early 2020. The quarterly number of naturalizations plummeted to 81,000 in the April-June 2020 period – during the first months of the U.S. outbreak – compared with an average of about 190,000 per quarter in the previous eight years. After two more below-average quarters, the number of naturalizations reached 200,000 in the January-March 2021 quarter – higher than the total for the same quarter in any of the nine previous years. Naturalization levels for 2021 and 2022 fiscal years have continued to outpace most pre-pandemic years.

The Center’s projection for the number of annual naturalizations for fiscal 2022 – about 940,000 – is higher than for any year since fiscal 2008, when an all-time high of 1,047,000 immigrants became citizens. Fiscal 2008 was one of three previous peaks in naturalizations during the past half-century. The others, in fiscal 1996 (1,041,000) and 2000 (886,000), far exceeded annual naturalizations in any year since 1907, the earliest year with available statistics.

There have been an average of about 200,000 applications for U.S. citizenship per quarter over the past decade. Since 2012, the quarterly number of applications for naturalization has generally ranged from about 160,000 to 250,000. Before the pandemic, there were two notable upticks in quarterly applications: one shortly before the 2016 presidential election (April-June 2016) and one shortly after it (January-March 2017).

The number of applications dropped to 154,000 in the April-June 2020 quarter, just after the pandemic began, but rebounded to 330,000 the following quarter (July-September). Going back to 1980, applications peaked in fiscal 1997, reflecting a surge in naturalizations by formerly unauthorized immigrants who gained legal status under legislation passed in 1986 and thus became eligible to naturalize after the usual five-year waiting period. There was another peak in applications in fiscal 2007, ahead of an announced increase in application fees.

More immigrants are seeking U.S. citizenship than are currently being naturalized. As of the end of June 2022, there was a backlog of about 673,000 pending applications for naturalization. The backlog is down from more than a million pending applications in December 2020, but still much higher than in the period between 2012 and 2016.

Several factors can affect the number of pending applications for naturalization. In the early stages of the pandemic, for example, immigration field offices closed, and the number of pending applications rose sharply in the ensuing months.

By August 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had administered the oath of allegiance to nearly every naturalization applicant whose ceremony was postponed when immigration offices were closed, according to an evaluation of government performance during the pandemic. The median time to process a naturalization application, 9.1 months in fiscal 2020, rose to 10.5 months in fiscal 2022.

Naturalizations for immigrants from most countries plunged during COVID-19 but have since rebounded and are 20% above their pre-pandemic average. One prominent exception is naturalizations of immigrants from China, one of the top 10 countries for naturalizations overall. Naturalizations of Chinese nationals are down about 20% from their pre-pandemic average.

Mexico, the country with the most annual naturalizations over the past quarter century, is up by only 8% compared with its pre-pandemic average. Most of the other major countries are up at least as much. On a regional basis, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and Middle East-North Africa are up by 15% to 26% compared with their pre-pandemic averages. (Due to data limitations, this analysis compares the 12-month period between April 2021 and March 2022 to the annual average from 2012 to 2019. Read “How we did this” for more information.)

The naturalized citizen population in the U.S. continues to increase rapidly. The total number of naturalized citizens in the U.S. almost tripled between 1995 and 2019, from 7.6 million to 22.1 million, according to the most recent Pew Research Center estimates. In contrast, the number of lawful permanent residents – that is, immigrants who may be eligible to be naturalized but have not done so – changed relatively little during that period, remaining between 11.2 million and 12.4 million.

The share of lawful immigrants who were naturalized grew steadily from 38% in 1995 to 65% in 2019. Lawful immigrants from Europe and Asia (both 73%) are the most likely to have been naturalized, followed by those from Middle East-North Africa (72%), sub-Saharan Africa (66%) and Latin America (56%).

The countries with the smallest proportion of lawful immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens (among those with at least 100,000 naturalized citizens overall) are El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan and Mexico. Fewer than half of lawful immigrants from these countries are naturalized citizens.

In contrast, the countries with the highest proportion of lawful immigrants who have been naturalized include Cambodia, Guyana, Iran, Laos, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Vietnam. At least 80% of immigrants from these countries have gained U.S. citizenship. (PEW RESEARCH)

To address acute labor shortages in its healthcare sector, Newfoundland and Labrador will set up a recruitment office in Bengaluru to bring internationally trained and registered nurses to the Canadian province.

“There’s still, you know, an incredible need for nurses here, and if you look at the demographics it’s only going to get worse,” Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said addressing a news conference last week.

“Our government and dedicated partners are taking bold action to address the staffing issues facing the healthcare system in our province, as we compete with other jurisdictions to attract and retain health care professionals at this critical time,” Furey said.

The recruiting team will meet graduate nurses who have the academic credentials to qualify for licenses in Canada.

According to local media reports, nurses are struggling with burnout due to overtime, and more than 600 jobs lie vacant.

The nurses’ union in the province says 40 per cent of its members are facing 24-hour shifts and high rates of workplace injury and violence. They say they’ll leave the profession if conditions don’t improve.

Furey said they chose Karnataka as it has more than 100 nursing schools with training similar to Newfoundland and Labrador’s.

Immigration Minister Gerry Byrne told reporters that the recruitment effort will be modelled after the province’s satellite office in Poland, which was set up to attract Ukrainians fleeing Russian attacks.

According to Statistics Canada, the province experienced the least growth via immigration in Atlantic Canada from 2016 to 2021, and welcomed only 0.3 per cent of all landed immigrants in Canada in that period.

More than 1.3 million new immigrants settled permanently in Canada between 2016 and 2021, but less than 4,000 of those immigrants settled in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Meanwhile in India, government data shows a sharp rise in the demand for Indian nurses post Covid from several countries like Ireland, Malta, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, the UK, and Belgium.

After the Philippines, India ranks second in the number of nurses working abroad for brighter job opportunities, better salaries, and other benefits. (IANS)

Nurse Recruitment

Newfoundland and Labrador will set up a recruitment office in Bangalore to bring registered nurses to the Canadian province.

This plan is in place to address acute labor shortages in the province’s healthcare sector. “There’s still, you know, an incredible need for nurses here, and if you look at the demographics it’s only going to get worse,” said Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey. The recruiting team in India will meet with graduate nurses who have the academic credentials and training to qualify for licenses in Canada.

According to local media reports, nurses in Newfoundland and Labrador are currently struggling with burnout due to overtime and high rates of workplace injury. Over 600 jobs need to be filled in hospitals. Furey stated that they chose Karnataka for recruitment because it has over 100 nursing schools with training similar to that of Newfoundland and Labrador.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on November 11, 2022 to hold the 9th India-US Economic and Financial Partnership in Delhi, where the two sides will sign a joint statement, explore cooperation on financial regulatory and technical issues as well as U.S. support for India’s upcoming G-20 presidency.

The bilateral meeting will be followed by a meeting with Indian and U.S. companies that will focus on “India-US Business and Investment opportunities”, officials said. However, while Ms. Yellen has indicated she will discuss sanctions on Russia, and the G-7 plan for an “oil price cap”, she will not press India to reduce its oil intake from Russia, which is now India’s biggest supplier, and accounts for more than 22% of Indian oil imports.

“We want Russian oil to continue to supply global markets; stay on the market. But we want to make sure that Russia doesn’t profit unduly from the war by enjoying prices that are essentially very high due to the war,” Ms. Yellen told news agency PTI before leaving for Delhi, where she will stop enroute to Indonesia for the G-20 summit.

Ahead of Ms. Yellen’s visit, which will begin with a visit to the Microsoft India Development Centre in NOIDA on Friday morning, US embassy officials said they have expedited visas for Indians working in the IT sector, amidst protests by the government of long delays for visas for Indians compared to other countries. This month, the officials announced, US Embassies and consulates in India have released 100,000 extra appointment slots for “H” (including H-1B) and “L” category visas that pertain to technology and management professionals moving to the U.S. for work, bringing down their waiting periods considerably.

However, the officials said that bringing visa disbursal capacities for all categories to pre-COVID levels, when the U.S. used to process more than a million Indian visa applications per year, will take several months, and will not return to “100%” capacity until July 2023.

At present, appointment waiting times for B1/B2 business and tourism visas are more than 900 days (about two and a half years), which has led to formal complaints by the government to the U.S. administration, including during External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to the U.S. in September.

“India is the number one priority for the US administration on visa issues,” a US embassy official said in Delhi on Thursday, blaming a shortage of personnel due to the Covid pandemic as the primary reason for delays in visa processing. “In an ideal world, there would be no disruptions and staff shortages,” the official added.

During the talks, Ms. Yellen is also expected to discuss India’s participation in the Indo-Pacific Economic Forum launched earlier this year, including several Asian countries, Australia, New Zealand and the US, where India has decided to stay out of trade discussions.

“Secretary Yellen will highlight the close ties between American and Indian people and businesses, and note ways we can further our bilateral economic relationship, including through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and stronger supply chains through friend-shoring” a statement by the US Treasury said last week, adding that Ms. Yellen would “reaffirm America’s and India’s shared democratic values”.

On Wednesday, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo also attended a virtual conference of the India-US CEO forum and discussed ways of increasing bilateral trade between the two countries.

Call for Action: Please sign the Change.org campaign https://chng.it/pkFdMwhhh4

We request the State Department, Secretary of State Mr. Anthony Bliken and  the US embassies in India to eliminate wait times for visa appointments in India. Even after a two-year long, Covid-era, pause in visa appointments at the US embassies in India, the visa appointment situation is far from normal, requiring 300 to 900 days of wait time based on the visa types. 

As per travel.state.gov reports on 10/31/2022, there is an average 900+ days wait time for appointments for visitors’ visa(B1/B2), an average 400 days wait time for students (F, M,J) and an average 300 days wait time for petition-based temp workers like H, L, O, P and Q across the USA consulates in India (Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata) (Reference: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/wait-times.html). In contrast, the US consulates in China only have an average 3 days wait time.

The 900+ day delay deprives Indian Americans and Indian immigrants in the USA of having their beloved relatives to visit, whether in the time of difficulties, needs or for celebrations, impacting their quality of life. 

The 400+ day wait time affects students joining the US universities, that not only impacts students’  future but also negatively impacts the US universities.

Similarly, the 300+ day of wait time is impacting productivity and success of various industries and businesses due to lack of skilled workers.

We urge the US State Department and Sec Blinken to resolve this issue. We believe It is not only important for US interests but the right thing to do on moral and compassionate grounds. As per Reuters news on 27th Sept, the Secretary of State blamed the lack of  resources and funding due to lost revenues from fees on this “self-financed program”. 

We request the concerned authorities to take all necessary steps and to seek emergency funds to resolve this backlog. We are eager to assist in any way possible and will forge a coalition of individuals who will rise to the occasion to assist in mitigating this issue..

During the US 2022 midterm election, Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (http://FIIDS-USA.org) appeals to Indo-American voters to voice their concerns about these delays to the candidates contesting for house and senate. #USVisaAppointmentWaitTime  #IndoAmericanVotesMatter

Please sign the Change.org campaign https://chng.it/pkFdMwhhh4

Canada aims to grant citizenship to 300,000 people in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, a move likely to benefit many Indians, rep[orts here stated. Canada will allow more foreign nationals to become its citizens announcing that it will create a total slot of 300,000 people in the fiscal year 2022-2023. This is likely to benefit many Indians. The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) brought out a memo recently that recommends that it process a total of 2,85,000 decisions and 300,000 new citizens by March 31, 2023.

A ‘decision,’ in this context, refers to a review of an application which is then either approved, denied, or marked as incomplete. The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) memo recommends that it process a total of 285,000 decisions and 300,000 new citizens by March 31, 2023.

IRCC also said that minors under the age of 18 will be eligible to apply for citizenship online by the end of the year. This is a significant increase over the 2021-2022 fiscal year and even exceeds the pre-pandemic targets of 2019-2020, when 253,000 citizenship applications were processed.

In March 2020, IRCC became unable to process most applications due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was because the department was only able to process paper applications that were mailed to a central location.

IRCC was unable to conduct interviews with candidates and there could not be any oath swearing at citizenship ceremonies. 

So far in the 2022-2023 fiscal, Canada has welcomed 116,000 new citizens and is on track to achieve its target. By comparison, over the same period in 2021, the country had only sworn in 35,000 people.

Though there is no country-wise break-up of the numbers, Indians are the top immigrant group to take up residence in Canada in 2022.

According to the country’s 2016 reports, Canada has some 1.4 million people of Indian descent.

In 2021, nearly 100,000 Indians moved to Canada under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and some 130,000 got work permits under the International Mobility Program. During 2021-2022, over 210,000 permanent residents also acquired Canadian citizenship.

Canada Express Entry System: Canada’s express entry system manages three major federal economic programs.

Canada’s express entry is an online system used to process applications for skilled workers who wish to immigrate to Canada, thereby helping them to acquire permanent residence status. The express entry system manages three major federal economic programs namely: federal skilled worker (FSW), federal skilled trades (FST) and Canadian experience class (CEC). How to apply for the Canadian express entry system?

There are two steps involved in the application process. The first step is to submit your profile with the documents which include language test results, educational credential assessment report and a passport.

The second step takes place after submission of profile in which a person is required to provide reference letters, additional identity documents, police clearance certificates, and medical examination results. 

What is the eligibility for Canada express entry system?

Possessing university degrees, skilled work experience and moderate proficiency in English are important for Canada express entry candidates. Other than this, the candidates must meet individual requirements for one of the three federal programs that come under the express entry system. 

What are the minimum requirements for application to Canada express entry system?

An individual must have at least one year of work experience in a skilled occupation and be able to demonstrate English skills. Additionally, completion of post-secondary education as per Canadian standards with an assessment is necessary.

Visa appointments scheduled may be rescheduled if applicants find earlier appointments but will not be cancelled by the embassy.

Appointments in every visa classification will be issued, US embassy said. The delays or cancellations that occurred in 2021 will not affect visa at this moment, a representative of the US Embassy told Hindustan Times’ business website Livemint. Visa appointments scheduled may be rescheduled if applicants find earlier appointments but will not be cancelled by the embassy, the representative further said.

Explaining the process, the representative said that anyone who wishes to request an emergency non-immigrant visa appointment must schedule a walk-in appointment. After this, the candidate may submit an emergency appointment request. However, some criterion will apply in order to qualify for emergency appointments.

“We cannot expedite interview waiver appointments in any visa classification. Visa applicants with an existing interview waiver appointment and you wish to request an emergency appointment, you must first cancel your existing interview waiver appointment, then make a first timer (walk-in) appointment and then request the emergency appointment,” the representative said.

There has been a high volume of visa requests with the US embassy in India facing severe backlog. Citing reduced staffing and pandemic-related disruptions in operations since March 2020, the embassy said that the demand for visas across all categories is high. The wait times have thus been longer for most non-immigrant visa appointments at the embassy in New Delhi and the consulates in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai.

Four persons, who were running the biggest international fake passport and visa rackets, have been arrested by the IGI airport police.

The DCP of IGI airport, Tanu Sharma, said that 325 fake passports, 175 fake visas and other related things were recovered from them.

“The mastermind of the gang is Zakir Yusuf Shaikh. IGI unit got tip-off about the gang following which it was busted,” said the police official.

Earlier, a case of PP Act was registered at Police Station of IGI Airport in which passenger Ravi Rameshbhai Chaudhary, a resident of Gandhinagar, Gujarat was deported from Kuwait on the allegations of fake and fabricated passport.

During course of investigation, it was found that the fake and fabricated passport was arranged by agents namely Zakir Yusuf Shaikh and Mushtaq alias Jamil Picturewala, both residents of Mumbai, who were introduced to Ravi Rameshbhai Chaudhary through a local agent namely Narayanbhai Chaudhary of Gujarat.

During the course of investigation, both the agents Sheikh and Picturewala were arrested from Mumbai along with their counterparts Imtiaz ali Sheikh alias Raju Bhai and Sanjay Dattaram Chavan from Mumbai.

“325 Indian passports, 175 visas (Canada, Singapore, US and other countries), more than 1200 stamps (immigration stamps of different countries and airport, embassies, banks etc), 11 international driving permits, issued from Republic of India), 75 passport jackets, 17 Aadhaar cards, 12 colour printers, dyes for making forged Indian passports, two lamination machines, one paper cutter machine, two UV machines, photo polymer stamp making machine and other incriminating evidence were recovered,” the police said. Efforts are being made to arrest absconding agent Narayan Bhai who is on the run. (IANS)

The Sikh Coalition and our allies at the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona (ACLU-AZ) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) were joined by more than 160 civil rights, immigration, religious, advocacy, and other organizations in submitting a letter to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas regarding the continued mistreatment of Sikhs and other religious migrants at our southern border by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers.

The letter reads in part: “For years, advocates and the media have repeatedly raised concerns about the seizure of religious headwear and other articles of faith, as well as the denial of religious diets by CBP … Time after time, DHS officials have assured the public and stakeholders that they take these concerns seriously, yet the violations continue. Alarmingly, these abuses have gone on for so long that they appear to have become standard operating procedure at the border, supplanting CBP’s own rules.”

As a reminder, in June and July, news began to emerge that CBP officers were confiscating Sikh migrants’ turbans and other possessions and throwing them in the trash. Later reports revealed that some Sikh migrants also have been denied vegetarian meals and were ordered by border officials to eat meat or ‘starve.’ Unfortunately, this misconduct appears to be ongoing: According to our organizational partners on the ground, there have been at least 12 new cases of turban confiscation in August alone.

The Sikh Coalition joined the ACLU-AZ and ACLU to take action by sending a letter to DHS in early August, and we have since continued to press senior DHS leaders to respond in a transparent and comprehensive way. Additionally, we were proud to support a letter sent last week by Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), and Judy Chu (D-CA) demanding answers about CBP’s treatment of Sikhs and other religious migrants, and we continue to provide information to members of the media working to spotlight this issue. Per public reporting, an investigation of this issue is currently underway.

“Sikh migrants are among the most vulnerable individuals coming to the United States–in many cases, fleeing a well-founded fear of religious persecution in their home countries,” said Sim J. Singh Attariwala, Sikh Coalition Senior Policy and Advocacy Manager. “To have their religious and other rights immediately violated by CBP officers is a cruel irony, and this misconduct should not be tolerated.”

As many as 163,370 Indians gave up their Indian passports in 2021 — the highest since 2015, the Indian Government told Parliament last week. This number was 144,017 in 2019 and 85,256 in Covid-impacted 2020. 

While 41 Indian citizens based in Pakistan gave up their Indian citizenship in 2021, compared to only seven in 2020, 326 living in the UAE renounced their Indian passports.

Data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Lok Sabha disclosed that the US was the top choice with almost half of Indians – 78,284 – preferring to become US citizens.

Overall, 932,276 Indians renounced their citizenships in favor of other countries between 2015 and 2021 — including 1,31,489 in 2015; 1,41,603 in 2016; 1,33,049 in 2017 and 1,34,561 in 2018.

Those giving up their Indian citizenship cited “personal” reasons for renouncing their home country. Indian laws don’t allow dual citizenship. 

India stands at the 84th position in the Henley’s and Partners’ passport index. A higher rank means easy visa and less bureaucratic delays in international travels.

Almost half — 78,284 — became US citizens in 2021 compared to 30,828 in 2020 and 61,683 in 2019. All of them were already based in the US. The other top destination countries were Australia (23,533), Canada (21,597), the UK (14,637), Italy (5,987), New Zealand (2,643) and Singapore (2,516).

Of the 10,645 foreign nationals who applied for Indian citizenship between 2016 and 2020 — 7,782 were from Pakistan and 795 were Afghanistan — 4,177 persons were granted Indian citizenship by the government.

As many as 163,370 Indians gave up their Indian passports in 2021 — the highest since 2015, the Indian Government told Parliament last week. This number was 144,017 in 2019 and 85,256 in Covid-impacted 2020.

While 41 Indian citizens based in Pakistan gave up their Indian citizenship in 2021, compared to only seven in 2020, 326 living in the UAE renounced their Indian passports.

Data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Lok Sabha disclosed that the US was the top choice with almost half of Indians – 78,284 – preferring to become US citizens.

Overall, 932,276 Indians renounced their citizenships in favor of other countries between 2015 and 2021 — including 1,31,489 in 2015; 1,41,603 in 2016; 1,33,049 in 2017 and 1,34,561 in 2018.

Those giving up their Indian citizenship cited “personal” reasons for renouncing their home country. Indian laws don’t allow dual citizenship.

India stands at the 84th position in the Henley’s and Partners’ passport index. A higher rank means easy visa and less bureaucratic delays in international travels.

Almost half — 78,284 — became US citizens in 2021 compared to 30,828 in 2020 and 61,683 in 2019. All of them were already based in the US. The other top destination countries were Australia (23,533), Canada (21,597), the UK (14,637), Italy (5,987), New Zealand (2,643) and Singapore (2,516).

Of the 10,645 foreign nationals who applied for Indian citizenship between 2016 and 2020 — 7,782 were from Pakistan and 795 were Afghanistan — 4,177 persons were granted Indian citizenship by the government.

U.S. consulates deny a large majority (61 percent) of employer sponsored immigrant visas for prospective legal permanent residents because it claims to have found a problem with their job offers. The denials reverse labor certifications and petitions approved by the Departments of Labor (DOL) and Homeland Security (DHS) and contrast with rare denials by DHS (4 percent) for workers applying for green cards while already inside the United States. Although this astounding denial rate has existed for decades, the State Department has never publicly explained it, and no one has previously reported on it.

It appears that the denials are so high partly because the department grants so little weight to earlier approvals by DOL and DHS. The much greater difficulty in obtaining a green card abroad has important consequences for U.S. immigration. It encourages many immigrants to apply for easier‐​to‐​obtain temporary visas, which unnecessarily uses limited cap spots under those programs, while others may give up on legal immigration and seek to enter illegally.

Legal immigrants to the United States have two ways to receive a green card (denoting legal permanent residence). The first way is to obtain an immigrant visa from the State Department authorizing travel to the United States at a U.S. consulate or embassy abroad. The other approach is to adjust from temporary to permanent status in the United States. Employer‐​sponsored immigrants usually obtain a temporary work visa and only then proceed through the employer‐​sponsored green card adjustment of status process in the United States.

In 2021, 161,451 employer‐​sponsored immigrants adjusted status in the United States, while just 15,026 (9 percent) received immigrant visas abroad. The ease of obtaining temporary work visas over difficult immigrant visas certainly contributes to this huge disparity. Employer‐​sponsored green cards typically require a permanent labor certification from the DOL, a process that currently takes more than 500 days to complete at great expense and risk. Then employers submit a petition to DHS requesting approval for the worker to apply, either domestically or abroad.

Since the green card or immigrant visa application is the final step and follows vetting by two different departments, denials should be rare, and they are for workers in the United States. DHS denied just 4 percent of employer‐​sponsored immigrants seeking adjustment of status to permanent residence in 2021. But it’s a completely different story at consulates abroad. The State Department does not report the total denial rate for employer‐​sponsored immigrants under every ground of ineligibility. It only reports denials under the labor certification ground of ineligibility. The labor certification ground only applies to employer‐​sponsored immigrants in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories (which excludes the EB-1 category that has a lesser number of outstanding researchers, executives, and people with extraordinary ability). Immigrants are only denied under this ground if the State Department claims to have found a problem with their job offers.

As per reports, denials shot up in 1995 and stayed extraordinarily high through the present. Another significant spike occurred in the 2000s when denials eventually reached an all‐​time high of 79 percent in 2009. It has come down somewhat since then, but both in 2019 and 2020, 61 percent of applicants were denied. These denials occurred because the State Department claimed to have found a problem with their job offer. If all the different grounds for denial were included—such as misrepresentation, public charge, and criminal bars—the denial rate would be even higher.

According to reports, new official numbers show that the U.S. government failed to issue a quarter of the available employment‐​based green cards for legal immigrants in fiscal year 2021. Despite about 1.4 million immigrants waiting for an employment‐​based green card in 2021, the government only used 195,507 of the 262,288 available green card numbers, wasting 66,781 green cards.

The official, final number of wasted green cards is somewhat more than the 62,000 number government officials told the press at the end of FY 2021. Table 1 shows the cap for each of the five employment‐​based categories and the number of green cards wasted in each category. With 84 percent unused, the EB-5 investor category had the most green card waste in FY 2021 as a percentage of available green cards. In absolute terms, the greatest waste came from the EB-3 category for (mostly) bachelor’s degree holders, which wasted 19,774 green cards last fiscal year.

If any EB-4 and EB-5 numbers are going to go unused, those numbers are supposed to be used by EB-1, and if EB-1 doesn’t use all of them, they can be used by EB-2, and then any unused for EB-2 can be used by EB-3. This means that EB-2 could have used as many as 107,000 green cards, and EB-3 as many as 122,000 (assuming all the other categories failed to use the same amount).

This cap system that flows unused numbers from one category to the next is supposed to guarantee that all the numbers are used every year, but last fiscal year, the system broke down. For reasons that I explained in the Washington Post last year, the U.S. government simply failed to make the necessary changes fast enough to ensure that every green card was issued, so those green cards were wasted.

Green card waste affects Indian immigrants far more than any other group of immigrants because they make up 82 percent of the immigrants waiting as a result of the caps. This is because the law limits immigrants from any single birthplace to no more than 7 percent of the green cards available in a year, and for many years, Indians have made up about half of all the new applicants. New Indian applicants enter the backlog, while immigrants from other countries get to pass them in line and receive a green card as soon as their applications are adjudicated.

But there’s a very important exception to this “per‐​country cap”: if the rest of the world will not use all the green cards, Indians can receive more than 7 percent of the total. In 2021, the employment‐​based cap was increased by more than 120,000 because the law dictates that any unused family‐​based green card numbers should be reassigned to the employment‐​based categories in the following year.

The influx meant that Indians could finally bypass the country caps and get green cards far in excess of the 7 percent limit, and they did. For the EB-2 and EB-3 categories in which most Indian applicants are waiting, issuances went from 5,793 in FY 2020 to 43,200 in FY 2021. The additional employment‐​based green cards in FY 2021 effectively provided Indians with six and a half years’ worth of issuances in a single fiscal year.

But that’s exactly what makes the waste of nearly 67,000 green cards so frustrating for anyone in the backlog. The failure to process these green cards basically means that the administration has (illegally) added 11.5 additional years of waiting for Indian immigrants. I say “illegally” because the government is required to implement the laws that Congress enacts, and it has violated the law. Unfortunately, courts failed to hold them accountable, so Congress must step in and force the agencies to follow the law.

The employment‐​based cap is even higher in FY 2022 than it was in FY 2021: 281,430. Based on numbers from the first quarter of FY 2022 as well as statements from agency officials and attorneys, it seems clear that the agencies will duplicate their poor performance in FY 2021. As of January 2022, the agency was on pace to waste more than 100,000 employment‐​based green cards in FY 2022. The Biden administration must show its commitment to legal immigration by making sure that every available green card is used this year.

The United States has welcomed 661,500 new citizens in the first half of the year 2022, with India as the second largest country of birth for naturalized American citizens. Mexico came first in the list of countries from where people naturalized in the year 2020, accounting for 13 percent of all cases, followed by India at 7.7 percent, the Philippines (5.3 percent), Cuba (5.0 percent), and China (4.2 per cent).

Throughout our nation’s history, the promise of both life and liberty, and the freedom to pursue happiness, is what has drawn millions from across the globe to call America their home,” US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director M Jaddou said on Friday, last week. 

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) welcomed 855,000 new citizens during the fiscal year 2021. The USCIS said it would celebrate Independence Day this year by welcoming more than 6,600 new citizens in more than 140 naturalization ceremonies between July 1 and July 8. The US celebrated its Independence Day on July 4.

The US federal government’s fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30.

“At the USCIS, our belief in the promise of America is renewed daily as we work to welcome immigrants as our fellow citizens, said Jaddou, adding “our country will be stronger and more diverse because of the choice they have made.

Former US Religious Freedom Ambassador Brownback Presents Pluralist Award To Indian American Activist Ajit Sahi

Veteran journalist and civil rights activist, Ajit Sahi, has received the prestigious Pluralist Award from former United States Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback.

Awarded by the Center of Pluralism for his “outstanding work [for] standing up for the religious freedom for people other than his own fellow religionists,” Sahi received a certificate of appreciation at the hands of Ambassador Brownback on the sidelines of the International Religious Freedom Summit that concluded here last week.

Commending Sahi, a Hindu, for working to secure the civil and political rights of India’s marginalized communities and social and religious minorities, Ambassador Brownback said it was important for people from dominant countries to stand up for minorities.

“In a democracy, in particular, you’ve got to stand up for the minorities and say that you can’t treat them that way,” Brownback said after presenting the award to Sahi. “Else, you can’t have a pluralistic society.”

Sahi is a 35-year veteran of journalism and human rights activism. Based in Washington, DC, he is the Advocacy Director with Indian American Muslim Council, the largest civil rights organization of the Indian Muslim diaspora anywhere in the world.

“It is an honor to receive this award from Ambassador Brownback,” Sahi said. “This award is more a recognition of the brave human rights defenders, Muslims, Christians, Dalits and adivasis of India who are being brutally repressed and persecuted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.”

Sahi slammed the Modi Administration for its relentless assault on Constitutional and democratic values, as reflected in the arrests of countless Muslims and Christians and the demolitions of Muslim homes, businesses and mosques; the lynchings of Muslims; the ban on the wearing of hijab by Muslims girls in Karnataka; among others. Sahi also criticized the police and the courts across India for failing to deliver justice to the victims and siding with the perpetrators that belong to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Mike Ghouse, President, Center for Pluralism, said Sahi was chosen for this year’s award for his courageous pursuit of justice for people of all faiths in India. “As a Hindu, Sahi has been at the forefront of the Indian American community that is fighting hard to preserve the pluralist and democratic values in India,” Ghouse said. 

The award was also given to Greg Mitchell, Chair of the International Religious Freedom Roundtable, the world’s largest advocacy collective on this issue; Walter Ruby, President, Jews and Muslims Allies Acting Together; and Maqsood Choudhary, Founder, Maclean Islamic Center in appreciation of their contribution to enhancing pluralism by pursuing human rights of people belonging to faiths other than their own.

Sahi is a recipient of the Voice of Courage Award from the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Swami Agnivesh Award from Hindus for Human Rights.

Indian Migration into Culturally Diverse Australia Increasing According to National Census 2021, media reports stated. The census also showed Punjabi as the language recording the largest increase, with over 239,000 people speaking Punjabi at home. 

Indian immigration to Australia has surged, overtaking China, according to national census data released Tuesday. The survey, which is held every five years, also revealed a growing number of Australians identifying as indigenous.

The 2021 Census released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has found that more than one million people immigrated to Australia since 2017, including over 220,000 Indians who formed the majority.

With the recent rise, “India has moved past China and New Zealand to become the third largest country of birth behind Australia and England,” a news release by the bureau noted. In the previous census recorded in 2016 India was the fifth largest country of birth.

According to the new census data, Australia’s demographics are changing rapidly and it is becoming increasingly culturally diverse.

More than half of its residents were born overseas or have an immigrant parent.

Indians are now the second-biggest immigrant population after those from Britain, overtaking settlers from China and New Zealand.

More than one million people moved to Australia since the last census in 2016. The vast majority — about 850,000 — arrived by the end of 2019 before the start of the pandemic and the closure of Australia’s international borders.

The research has shown the number of people who used a language other than English at home increased to more than 5.5 million people since 2016. Of those, 850,000 reported that they did not speak English well or at all.

Australian Bureau of Statistics’ deputy statistician Teresa Dickinson told a news conference Tuesday the country is becoming increasingly multicultural.

“The number of us who are first-generation Australians — those born overseas — and second-generation Australians — those with one or both parents born overseas, which includes me — has grown and is now over half the Australian population. We have seen the largest increase in country of birth outside Australia being India with 220,000 additional people counted, making India now the second highest overseas born population after England and leapfrogging China and New Zealand.”

The proportion of Australians identifying as Christians has fallen below 50% for the first time.

The number of people who identified as Hindu increased by 55% over the past five years, reflecting the flow of immigrants from India and Nepal.

The survey has reported a growth in the number of indigenous Australians. Collectively, they speak 167 traditional languages at home. It was also the first time that “non-binary” was offered as an option to report an individual’s gender.

Completing the survey is compulsory. Those who do not comply can be prosecuted and fined up to $153 each day until the census is completed.

There were 25.5 million people in Australia on census night in August 2021, excluding overseas visitors. This is an increase of more than two million people from 2016.

A Pakistani woman separated from her family during the 1947 Partition met her Indian brothers for the first time last month after 75 years.

Mumtaz Bibi, who was separated from her Sikh family during the turmoil, met her brothers Gurmukh Singh and Baldev Singh for the first time at the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan in April. “We are so happy that we’ve been able to meet our sister in our lifetime,” Gurmukh Singh said.

In 1947, the Partition led to the creation of two independent nations – India and Pakistan. It was the biggest movement of people in history, outside war and famine. Nearly 12 million people became refugees and between half a million and a million people were killed in religious violence. “The violence ruined us too,” said Gurmukh Singh, who is now in his mid-70s.

Their father Pala Singh had moved from Pakistan to the Patiala district of Punjab state in India after his wife was killed in Pakistan during the violence. “When he came to know about his wife’s death, he assumed his daughter was also murdered, following which he married his sister-in-law (as was the tradition during those days),” said Baldev Singh, the younger of the two brothers.

But in Pakistan, Mumtaz Bibi had been found by a Muslim couple who adopted and raised her. “About two years ago, our sons found out about our half-sister with the help of social media,” Baldev Singh said.

Ms Mumtaz, who was searching for family, had spoken to Pakistani YouTuber Nasir Dhillon, whose channel Punjab Lehar helped several families separated during the Partition find each other. Wanting to confirm their connection, Gurmukh Singh contacted a shopkeeper at their ancestral village in Pakistan’s Sheikhupura district.

“He connected us with Mumtaz,” he said  He admitted that the family was initially sceptical about her identity.  “Could she be someone else? But we gradually connected the dots, got proof and it was established that she is very much our sister,” he said. “Our happiness knew no bounds. After that, we just wanted to meet her at any cost. But there were visa issues,” Baldev Singh said.

One possible meeting point they discussed was the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara, the final resting place of Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak Dev and one of the religion’s holiest shrines. The gurdwara is located in Pakistan’s Narowal district across the Ravi river, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India.

Tens of thousands of people have travelled through the Kartarpur corridor since it was inaugurated by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2019, allowing Indian pilgrims rare visa-free access.

Some families, who were separated during the Partition, have also been able to reunite at this spot. But pilgrimage to Kartarpur was suspended in March 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. It finally reopened last November.

On 24 April, the brothers arrived with their family at the shrine and finally met their sister who had also brought along her own family. “We hugged each other and wept,” Baldev Singh recalled, his eyes welling up at the memory. “We just didn’t want to separate.”

“We promised each other that we will try to get visas as soon as possible. She has filed her papers and we expect that she will visit us soon.” Ms Mumtaz had been raised a Muslim. Gurmukh Singh said their family had accepted this by the time they met. “When we met, we forgot everything else,” he said.

“So what if our sister is a Muslim? The same blood flows through her veins. And that’s what matters to us more than anything else. It’s true that we have slightly different styles of living,” he said. “They [in Pakistan] eat more meat while we eat less of it. But as Guru Nanak said ‘manas ki jaat sabhe ek pehchan bo’ (‘Accept all humans as your equals’).”

In January, another family who had been similarly separated during the Partition met at the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara.  Sikka Khan, who had been left in India with his mother during the Partition, was able to meet his brother Sadiq Khan, who had ended up in Pakistan with their father.

In May, Sikka Khan returned to India a happy man with his long-lost sibling in tow. “The Kartarpur Sahib has enabled so many people to meet their lost relatives like us,” Gurmukh Singh said.

But he had one request for the Indian government. “They should make visiting the Kartarpur Sahib and visa processes between two countries easier. It took us 75 years to meet. Now we want to meet again and again, and spend time together,” he said.

A Conservative leaning Supreme Court’s ruling earlier last week went against long time Georgia resident Pankajumar Patel in his deportation proceedings. Delivering the court’s ruling, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said federal courts have a very limited role to play in reviewing immigration officials’ decisions in some deportation cases even when they have made “factual mistakes”.

The court ruled 5-4 against Patel, who said he had “mistakenly” checked a box indicating he was a U.S. citizen when renewing his Georgia driver’s license. When the government began removal proceedings in 2012, Patel had been in the United States for 20 years.

In 2007, Pankajkumar Patel, who had entered the United States illegally with his wife Jyotsnaben in the 1990s, applied to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for discretionary adjustment of status under, which would have made Patel and his wife lawful permanent residents.

But USCIS was aware that Patel had previously checked a box on a Georgia driver’s license application stating that he was a United States citizen, hence his application for green card was denied.

When the government began removal proceedings against Patel and his wife in 2012, they had been in the United States for 20 years.

Patel sought relief from removal by renewing his adjustment of status request. Patel argued before an Immigration Judge that he had mistakenly checked the “citizen” box on the state application and thus lacked the subjective intent necessary to violate the federal statute.

The Immigration Judge disagreed, and denied Patel’s application for adjustment of status, and ordered that Patel and his wife be removed from the country.

The Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed Patel’s appeal. Patel then petitioned the Eleventh Circuit for review, where a panel of that court held that it lacked jurisdiction to consider his claim.

Justice Barrett delivered the opinion of the court. “Congress has comprehensively detailed the rules by which noncitizens may enter and live in the United States. When noncitizens violate those rules, Congress has provided procedures for their removal. At the same time, there is room for mercy: Congress has given the Attorney General power to grant relief from removal in certain circumstances.”

“Federal courts have a very limited role to play in this process,” Justice Barrett wrote. “With an exception for legal and constitutional questions, Congress has barred judicial review of the Attorney General’s decisions denying discretionary relief from removal.

The Patels have three children. One is a U.S. citizen and the other two are green-card holders who are married to Americans.

Canada said it will expedite Express Entry applications most of which will be resolved in 6 months. This will begin once Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) resumes Express Entry invitations to Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), Canadian experience Class (CEC) and Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) candidates in early July.

The pandemic delayed immigration services causing some applicants to wait as long as two years for IRCC to finalise their permanent residency status. Express Entry applications took 6 months or less before the pandemic. A majority of applicants enter Canada via the Express Entry route.

Canada paused the entry of immigrants through the FSWP invitations in December 2020 and CEC applications in September 2021.

The development comes at a time of jobs glut in Canada with 800,000 job vacancies being reported. The country is witnessing record low unemployment.

Canada earlier announced a hike in the amount of settlement funds required to be shown for some Express Entry applicants. The changes apply only to FTSP without a valid job offer in Canada. Those with valid job offers and CEC candidates have been exempted.

Express Entry candidates who are eligible for FSWP and the CEC will be invited to apply in July.

FSWP and FSTP candidates who do not have a job offer in Canada typically require to show funds $13,310 and $3586 per family member.

According to data released by the Canadian government, Canada’s immigration backlog surpassed 2.1 million in April across all lines of business.

Canada has announced that it will speed the processing of Express Entry applications, saying that the majority of new applications will be processed within six months.

In early July, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will start sending Express Entry invitations to candidates in the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), Canadian Experience Class (CEC), and Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP).

A presidential advisory commission has unanimously voted to recommend US President Joe Biden to proc­ess all applications for green cards or permanent residen­cy within six months, a pr­oposal if adopted is likely to bring cheers to the hundreds and thousands of Indian-Americans including those waiting for it for decades.

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 in the US.

Indian IT professionals, most of whom are highly skilled and come to the US mainly on the H-1B work visas, are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system which imposes a seven per cent per country quota on allotment of the coveted Green Card or permanent legal residency.

The recommendations of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian America­ns, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (PACAANHPI) are to be sent to the White House now for approval. If adopted, it is is likely to bring cheers to the hundreds and thousands of Indian-Americans and those waiting, some even for decades, for a Green Card.

A proposal on the issue was moved by eminent Indian-American community leader Ajay Jain Bhutoria during the meeting of the PACAANHPI, during which all its 25 commissioners unanimously approved it.

The proceedings of the meeting here in the national capital were webcast live last week.

To reduce the pending Green Card backlog, the advisory commission recommended the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to review their processes, systems and policies and establish new internal cycle time goals by streamlining processes, removing redundant steps if any, automating any manual approvals, improving their internal dashboards and reporting system and enhancing policies.

The recommendations aim to reduce the cycle time for processing all forms related to family-based Green Card applications, DACA renewals and all other Green Card applications within six months and issue adjudicate decisions within six months of applications received by it.

The commission recommended National Visa Center (NVC) State Department facility to hire additional officers to increase their capacity to process Green Card applications interviews by 100 per cent in three months from August 2022, and to increase Green Card Card applications visa interviews and adjudicate decisions by 150 per cent up from capacity of 32,439 in April 2022 by April 2023.

Thereafter Green Card visa interviews and visa processing timeline should be a maximum of six months, it said. Aimed at making it easier for the immigrants to stay and work in the country, the commission recommended that the USCIS should review requests for work permits, travel documents and temporary status extensions or changes within three months and adjudicate decisions.

Only 65,452 family preference green cards were issued in fiscal 2021 out of the annual 226,000 green cards available, leaving hundreds of thousands of green cards unused (with many likely to be permanently wasted in the future) and keeping many more families needlessly separated.

There were 421,358 pending interviews in April compared to 436,700 in March, said the policy paper by Bhutoria. Noting that while the US population has grown substantially in recent decades, the immigration system has not changed to keep pace, he said. The annual levels of immigration were established in the early 1990s and have remained largely unchanged since then, he said.

To make matters worse, the method used to calculate the annual number of employment-and-family-based immigration is deeply flawed, and has led to family-based immigration levels being set at their absolute minimum every year for the past 20 years, while hundreds of thousands of green cards for family members go wasted, never used by any individuals when they could be used to reunite families instead, Bhutoria said.

Under the new temporary rule announced by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service early May, certain categories of work visas will automatically extend validity of their work authorization from 180 days to 540 days starting May 4, 2022.

As per USCIS’s guidelines, “This rule temporarily amends existing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulations to provide that the automatic extension period applicable to expiring Employment Authorization Documents (Forms I-766 or EADs) for certain renewal applicants who have filed Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, will be increased from up to 180 days to up to 540 days from the expiration date stated on their EADs.”

This new rule brings hope to some of the thousands of Indians working in the U.S. As Partner and Attorney Min Kim of Chugh LLP explains, “The temporary rule should primarily help foreign nationals with an EAD incidental to a filed and pending AOS application as EAD adjudications have routinely taken much longer than 180 days given the unprecedented backlogs at the Service Centers in recent months.”

Now, an AOS applicant, or an eligible H-4 spouse, or L-2 spouse among other eligible EAD applicants, can be assured that there will be minimal concern of an employment-gap in their work authorization as they await their renewed EAD cards to arrive, Kim explains.

But he does remind those in line that, “Once again, the expansion of the auto-extension rule does not make more people eligible for this benefit, but for those who do fall in the bucket of eligible EAD applicants, it helps stabilize their ability to remain in the U.S. and continue to work.”

Background For last several years USCIS processing delays have caused the spouses of H, L and E visa holders to quit their jobs and wait over a year in most cases for their employment authorization document renewals caused by USCIS processing delays.

These are doctors, nurse practitioners, engineers, teachers, media professionals, et al, who could have continued serving our communities but could not for no fault of theirs.

Kimberly Hernandez, 21, of Arlington, Va., stands in the center of Mount Pleasant Street as the march heads toward the White House on Thursday. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Sarah L. Voisin

They did everything by the book, filed their papers six months ahead of time, and continued to look at processing times which increased from 90 days in pre-Covid era to 1.7 years in current times.

In March 2022, USCIS announced it wishes to implement premium processing to reduce some of the backlog. While USCIS will begin premium processing for various categories in October 2022, the announcement came with a start date in 2025 for H, L and E visa categories. Why this differential treatment with the spouse of visa holders?

A welcome change with a caveat The new temporary rule is welcomed by employers and attorneys but does nothing much for the community affected most by USCIS’s processing delays – certain spouses of high skilled immigrant visa holders from highly populated countries like India and China, under H, L and E categories. These visa holders still need a valid I-94 to benefit from USCIS’s new temporary regulation which means they must have a valid underlying visa.

Nevertheless, Managing Partner and Attorney Diya Mathews of Chugh LLP gives a qualified welcome to the change and questions the delays.

“The extension of another 180 days for pending EAD applications is a welcome move by the DHS. However, this is still simply a stop-gap measure. DHS needs to look into why the adjudication of a 765 application, especially when it’s a renewal, should take as much time as it currently does. Is DHS really so backlogged that it cannot ensure that EAD adjudications in under 6 months?”

Things were different at one point in the past. “It used to be that if your EAD application was not adjudicated in 6 months, you could go to the local Field office and get an interim EAD,” Mathews recalls.

H4 EAD visa holders from across the country met with staff at the Office of Management and Budget in Washington, D.C. in 2019, to advocate against rescinding employment authorization. Photo: courtesy Neha Mahajan/Skilled Immigrants In America.

“That provision has been taken away. We have clients who now have to jump through the hoops so they don’t lose their jobs navigating this byzantine EAD adjudication system,” she notes.

And Department of Homeland Security apparently has a mechanism for expediting deserving cases, “but it’s the rare case that actually meet their criteria for expedited processing,” Mathews says adding that while these interim measures are helpful to a limited extent, DHS needs to address the underlying issues and work on improving the case processing times for these applications.

The H, L and E visa holders have two options: They step outside of United States and reenter with their visas stamped,

Wait for their visas to be approved by USCIS which at the moment is neck deep with over 1.5 million pending work permits.

Recently, USCIS Director Ur Jaddou noted that there are 1.5 million work permits requests pending approval.

Since the beginning of Covid, U.S. consulates and embassies across the world are not yet working in full capacity and dates are periodically released by State Department. It is a simple case where demand is higher than the supply. Social media support groups on WhatsApp and Telegram are filled with folks anxiously looking for a date to get their visa stamped!

The Election Commission of India has said that its contemplating postal ballots for overseas voters, an official statement said on Friday.

During his recent visit to South Africa and interaction with the members of the Indian community there, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra urged the community to register as overseas voters as the present numbers are abysmally low. He also shared with the members that extension of Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) facility to overseas voters is being contemplated.

The Election Commission delegation, led by the CEC, visited South Africa and Mauritius from April 9-19.

During this visit, a series of meetings were held with the Election Commissions of South Africa and Mauritius as well as interactions with the large NRI community in the two countries. Both Election Management Bodies are also MOU partners with ECI.

The three countries share a relationship which is fundamental, unique and rooted in the collective experiences and cumulative strength of their people, the statement said.

As the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB), which provides a unique platform for exchange of knowledge and information between its members, completes 10 years of its foundation and steps into a new decade, the meeting was positioned at the right juncture wherein it was time to reflect on the way forward for A-WEB as an organisation, it said.

“During the meeting, it was acknowledged that this umbrella organisation had EMBs with a lot of experience and expertise which could assist and advise those EMBs who were looking for further development and upgradation of their systems. It was felt that the focus must now be on increasing membership and enhancing the sense of belonging of the members. More avenues must be explored so that the members can interact and meet more often,” the CEC said.

Sushil Chandra said that South Africa has made big strides in democracy and would be hosting the next General Assembly of AWEB in October 2022. India has a very intense and active association with AWEB and both it and South Africa are its founding members. (IANS)

House Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee Chair Zoe Lofgren (CA-19) earlier this week, introduced H.R. 7374, the Jumpstart our Legal Immigration System Act, a bill that recaptures hundreds of thousands of unused family- and employment-based visas and allows individuals who are in the U.S. and eligible for a green card – but for the lack of an available visa number – to apply for their green card upon paying a fee. Both major provisions included in this bill were part of the House-passed version of the Build Back Better Act.

The Jumpstart our Legal Immigration System Act is co-sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-27) and Ritchie Torres (NY-15).

“We all know that our immigration system is dysfunctional, and it has been in dire need of reform for decades,” said Chair Lofgren. “The basic framework for allocating immigrant visas dates back to the middle of the 20^th century and was last seriously updated in 1990, when Congress established the worldwide numerical limits on visas and the 7% per-country cap that still exists today. Over time, these limitations have led to backlogs that were unimaginable in 1990. The Jumpstart our Legal Immigration System Act will help reduce the backlogs, thereby enabling immigrants to fully contribute to their communities and our national economy, while also allowing U.S. companies to attract and retain high-skilled workers. That will enhance our country’s competitive advantage and our position as a global leader in innovation.”

“By restoring the availability of immigrant visas lost due to COVID-19 or bureaucratic delay and enhancing green card processing, we are investing in our families and U.S. businesses,” said Chair Nadler. “Our immigration system is in desperate need of reform and this legislation is a vital step in the right direction. That is why I am proud to join Subcommittee Chair Lofgren in introducing the Jumpstart our Legal Immigration System Act, which will recapture some 400,000 family- and employment- based visas, create an accelerated path to adjustment of status for those already here, and give much need funds to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to improve visa processing. This legislation, much of which was included in the House-passed version of the Build Back Better Act, is a no-brainer for our communities and economy.”

“There are over four million people in the family immigration backlogs waiting to be reunited with their loved ones. Recapturing unused visas that were lost to delays and bureaucracy would help ease the already burdensome backlogs for immigrant families and workers,” said Rep. Chu. “The Jumpstart our Legal Immigration System Act will not only help to alleviate these YEARS LONG wait times for families, but it will also ensure that we honor the diversity visas that were earned but were denied based on the Trump administration’s cruel Muslim and African bans.”

“From his first days in office, President Biden acted swiftly to reverse the deeply damaging immigration policies of the Trump administration, yet it is no question that our immigration system has been broken for decades,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres. “The Jumpstart our Legal Immigration System Act will begin to address the visa backlog that has prevented hundreds-of-thousands family- and employment-based visas to enter the U.S., while also providing relief for diversity visa winners impacted by the Trump Muslim Ban. I am proud to support legislation that will finally bring much needed reform to our immigration system.”

According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of State, there are currently around four million individuals waiting in the family-sponsored immigrant visa backlog and one million individuals waiting in the employment-based immigrant visa backlog.

This legislation amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to prevent the future loss of unused employment-based visas by ensuring that they roll over to the family-based categories as Congress intended. The bill also recaptures unused immigrant visas from 1992 through 2021 which would result in the recapture of:

• Approximately 222,000 unused family-sponsored visas; and
• Approximately 157,000 employment-based visas.

The legislation would also allow an estimated 40,000 individuals who were selected for, but did not receive, the diversity visa lottery to reapply for such visas. These individuals were unable to finalize the process or enter the U.S. due to various executive orders or COVID-related office closures and restrictions.

Further, the Jumpstart our Legal Immigration System Act allows individuals who are in the U.S. and eligible for adjustment to Legal Permanent Residence (LPR) status – but for the lack of an available visa number – to apply for adjustment upon paying a fee. This will allow individuals to receive work authorization while they wait for a visa number to become available and will prevent dependent children from “aging out” of eligibility for LPR status.

Finally, the legislation allows immigrants who are in the U.S. to receive an exemption from the immigrant visa numerical limits and adjust their status to a green card if their immigrant visa petition has been approved for two years and they pay a supplemental fee.

To adjudicate these applications and reduce case processing backlogs, the legislation includes $400 million for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs, and Ports Security (ICA) has issued a circular stating that residency stickers on passports will no longer be issued for expatriates.

The circular, seen by Arabian Business, states that Emirates ID cards issued to expats will be used as a proof of valid UAE residency, effective from Monday, April 11.

The ICA has affirmed that a decision to cancel the residency stickers affixed to residents’ passports was issued in line with the UAE wise leadership’s directives to upgrade services to achieve customer happiness.

The cancellation decision also reduces the steps associated with the process of issuing and renewing the UAE residency for expatriates, as it provides a unified form which includes the issuance and renewal of the residency and the Emirates ID in a single application.

Additionally, the authority’s smart application provides the possibility to obtain an electronic copy of the Emirates ID upon request.

The new generation of the Emirates ID cards issued to foreigners residing in the UAE will include all the details that were previously mentioned on the residency stickers affixed to passports.

Major General Saeed Rakan Al Rashidi, the acting director of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA), added that the previous versions of the residence stickers would remain available electronically through the authority’s smart application, in a step aimed at enhancing transitional flexibility towards using the Emirates ID as an alternative.

UAE residents can apply for a printed version of their residency bearing the authority’s stamp, through their individual accounts on the authority’s smart services system, which allows individuals to print their residency details in just three steps.

The new procedures will be circulated to airlines to enable them to verify the validity of residences by checking passport numbers and Emirates ID cards, which contain residency information.

The move also aligns with a recent law announced by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, the Ruler of Dubai, which seeks to accelerate the emirate’s digital transformation, enhance the provision of digital services, and promote the digitisation of services in both the public and private sectors.

India has restored all valid long duration (10 years) regular (paper) tourist visas for US nationals with immediate effect. Fresh issue of regular (paper) long-duration (10 years) tourist visas has also been restored for US nationals.

In addition, e-Tourist visas under the three options (one month, one year and five years), which remained suspended since March 2020, shall stand restored.

Applications for fresh e-tourist visas for eligible nationalities can also be made at the Indian E-Visa Portal [https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html]

The current scheme of regular tourist visa/e-visa (one month stay only) on gratis basis will also continue.

Foreign nationals on tourist/e-tourist visas will be permitted to enter India only through designated Sea Immigration Check Posts (ICPs) or Airport ICPs by flights, including those under the Vande Bharat Mission or ‘air bubble’ scheme or by any flights as allowed by Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation.

In no case, the foreign nationals will be allowed to enter through land border or riverine routes on Tourist visa/E-Tourist visa, said a press release issued by the Consulate General of India in Atlanta.

Applicants are also advised to go through the guidelines for international travel to India, available at: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/GuidelinesforInternationalarrivalsupdatedon10thFebruary2022.pdf

India has announced that 75 special civilian charter flights under ‘Operation Ganga’ have brought back 15,521 Indian citizens from Ukraine’s neighboring countries. The Indian government had initiated an airlift operation to evacuate Indians, who have found their way to neighboring countries of war-torn Ukraine.

It had deployed a number of special charter as well as Indian Air Force flights to ferry back the citizens. On Tuesday, 410 Indians were airlifted by two special civilian flights from Suceava, Romania.

“With this, about 18,000 Indians have been brought back through the special flights which began on February 22, 2022. The number of Indians airlifted by 75 special civilian flights goes up to 15,521,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation said.

“IAF had flown 12 missions to bring back 2,467 passengers, as part of ‘Operation Ganga’, and carried over 32 tonnes of relief material.”

According to the statement, among the civilian flights, 4,575 passengers have been brought from Bucharest by 21 flights, 1,820 from Suceava by 9 flights, 5,571 from Budapest by 28 flights, 909 passengers by 5 flights from Kosice, 2,404 Indians from Rzeszow by 11 flights, and 242 persons by a flight from Kiev.

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced new policies that will provide better protection to immigrant children who are victims of abuse, neglect, abandonment, or similar parental maltreatment.

“Today, we are taking action to help immigrant children in the U.S. who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned and offer them protection to help rebuild their lives,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou. “These policies will provide humanitarian protection to vulnerable young people for whom a juvenile court has determined that it is in their best interest to remain in the United States.”

The new policies include updating regulations to clarify Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) eligibility criteria such as updating an age-out provision to protect petitioners who turn 21 while their petition is pending. Additionally, USCIS is updating regulations for evidentiary requirements to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the program and ensure that eligible victims of parental abuse, neglect, or abandonment receive SIJ classification and a pathway to apply for lawful permanent residence (LPR) status.

USCIS may consent to a grant of SIJ classification when the petitioner has provided evidence of court-ordered relief from parental abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis under state law, as well as evidence of the factual basis for a juvenile court’s determinations. The regulations also make clear that petitioners cannot be required to contact their alleged abuser while USCIS makes a decision in their SIJ case. An SIJ petitioner may have an attorney, accredited representative, and/or trusted adult present, if an interview is scheduled, but only attorneys and accredited representatives are entitled to make a statement during such interviews.

In addition to issuing the updated regulations, USCIS is updating the USCIS Policy Manual to consider deferred action and related employment authorization for noncitizens classified as SIJs who are ineligible to apply for adjustment of status to LPR status solely because a visa is not immediately available. Deferred action and employment authorization will provide invaluable assistance to these vulnerable noncitizens who have limited financial and other support systems in the United States while they await an available visa number.

This Policy Manual update is effective May 6, 2022, and applies to eligible noncitizens classified as SIJs before, on, or after that date, based on an approved Form I-360, Petition for Ameriasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the initial registration period for the coveted H1-B visas for FY2023 will run through March 1-18.

In a statement on Saturday, the USCIS said that during the above mentioned period “prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to complete and submit their registrations using our online H-1B registration system”.

The USCIS will assign a confirmation number to each registration submitted which will be used solely to track registrations.

This number however, cannot be used to track the case status online, the statement said.

It further said that prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives are required to use a myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the required $10 registration fee.

“Prospective petitioners submitting their own registrations will use a ‘registrant’ account. Registrants will be able to create new accounts beginning at noon on February 21.”

US employers and agents are collectively known as “registrants”.

The USCIS said that once enough registrations are received by the March 18 deadline, there will be a random selection after which selection notifications will be via users’ myUSCIS online accounts.

The H1-B visa allows companies and other employers in the US to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialised knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent, according to the USCIS.

Every year the US gives 65,000 H1-B visas open to all and 20,000 to those with advanced US degrees.

Indians are the biggest beneficiaries of the H1-B visas getting about 75 per cent of them, according to the US government. (IANS)

Beginning Monday, 13 December, 2021 (12:01 AM Eastern Standard Time), all visa applications will be accepted only at VFS Global. The Consulate will stop accepting direct visa applications from 13 December, 2021.

Applicants are required to fill Government of India visa form at https://indiainnewyork.gov and visit VFS Global website https://visa.vfsglobal.com/usa/en/ind to pay fee etc. after creating an account on VFS’ website. In addition to applicable Government of India fees for these services, a service fee of US$ 15.90 (inclusive of all taxes) per application will be charged by VFS Global.

Emergency Visa Service: VFS will accept in-person applications, with prior appointment, on working days as well as on weekends/holidays, from US passport holders of Indian origin and their family members who are required to visit India due to a genuine family emergency, such as critical illness or death of a family member.

Documentary evidence of the emergency will need to be provided and an emergency service fee. From Monday – Friday: Between 9 AM to 4 PM Email: VFS_VisaNYC@vfsglobal.com Weekends and Holidays Only: Between 9AM to 4PM
Tel: +1-929-866-2770

Applicants may also like to avail of e-Tourist Visa facility (free of charge) for a limited period as per details at https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html 5. In addition to the above number, applicants could also contact the Consulate on its Emergency Visa Helpline +1-917-815-7066

The lengthy wait time for Green Card has substantial consequences for the hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants to the United States as well as to the US economy. For sdome, the wait time runs beyond their lifetime. Some are expected to wait upto 100 years to get Green card approvals, under current law. The United States issues a limited number of Green Cards each year. There are annual quotas both for the various types of Family-based Green Cards (480,000) and Employment-based Green Cards (140,000). In addition, there is a per country percentage limitation in each category tied to the fiscal year of the USCIS which ends on September 30th.

Under these quota rules, unused Green Cards in the Family-based categories are added to the Employment-based categories and vice versa. Typically, a very large percentage of Family-based Green Cards are issued by U.S. Consulates abroad (through the Immigrant Visa application process) and a very large percentage of Employment-based Green Cards are issued by the USCIS in the United States through the Adjustment of Status application process. Due to such restrictions, the American economy is unable to access the full international talent pool of high-skilled workers already present and working in the United States today – indeed, the very scientists, inventors, health care workers, entrepreneurs, and other professionals that give the United States its edge over its global competitors today, the lawmakers write.

U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Kathy Manning and Deborah K. Ross led a coalition of 40 Congressmen, writing to the Congressional leadership on Aug. 31 calling for an end to employment-based Green Card backlogs as part of a reconciliation package. The letter, sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, requested that the budget reconciliation package provide relief to the 1.2 million individuals stuck in the employment-based green card backlog, strengthening our economy in the process. Under the current system, no more than 7 percent of employment-based green cards are available to individuals from a single country. As a result, individuals from countries with large populations – such as India and China – face decades-long wait times to achieve lawful permanent resident status, according to the news release issued by Krishnamoorthi’s office.

In order to fully unlock the economic potential of high-skilled immigrants, a pathway to lawful permanent residence must be cleared and the system must be reformed. Reforming this immigration system will be especially helpful to the United States as its economy and workforce continues to recover from the pandemic, it said. “Failure to provide a path to lawful permanent residence for the 1.2 million people in the employment-based green card backlog, most of whom are H-1B visa holders, would be tantamount to staging an economic recovery with one hand tied behind our back,” the representatives wrote in the letter. “Permanently relegating H-1B holders to nonimmigrant status while China, Russia, and other major powers are ascendant on the world stage – and hungry to be home to the innovators of the 21st century – is simply nonsensical. This can and must be addressed in the budget reconciliation package currently under negotiation,” it added.

As a co-chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Immigration Task Force, Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) has remained committed to advancing immigration reform throughout his time in Congress, including as an original cosponsor of the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act, which passed the House last Congress, the news release notes.Among the other signatories of the letter sent to Pelosi and Schumer were Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; and Ro Khanna, D-Calif.

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have pledged to work with the Asian community on immigration reforms, according to the White House. Last weekday, the two leaders told representatives of the Asian, Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community that they supported providing a path to citizenship for essential workers, farm labour, people from nations like Nepal and Myanmar who are given temporary protection status against deportation because of unsettled conditions in their home countries, and those who were brought to the US illegally when they were children.

Biden and Harris said they backed achieving this by using the budget process known to get the necessary legislation for it through the Senate, where the Democrats do not have the 60 votes needed for passing a separate law for it.

But their plan for urgent action through the budget process does not seem to cover the several thousands of Indian children who came to the country legally and followed the immigration rules and are threatened with deportation as soon as they turn 21 even while their parents are still legally waiting for their green cards or permanent immigrant status.

The White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Thursday, July 5, announced the new comprehensive immigration bill that US President Joe Biden has proposed, and about the administration’s move on ‘documented dreamers’ including children of H1B visa holders.

Neil Makhija, the executive director of Indian American Impact, told reporters that he “raised issues of immigration, voting rights and specifically green card backlog in context of explaining how country caps are remnants of exclusionary laws in the past, particularly enacted in the 20s.”

Asked at her briefing about the protection for these children, Biden’s spokesperson Jen Psaki said that helping them was not in the current legislative effort through the budget legislation. “It’s not in the current, I think it’s not in the current discussions, but it is something the President would like to address.”

Psaki added that it is something that Biden “has proposed addressing in a comprehensive immigration bill”, and supports giving these children protection.

While the parents stay here on their H1-B or H4 visas and wait for green cards, their children will not be eligible to continue on their H-4 visas as soon as they turn 21 and can be deported.

This affects Indians because the wait for green cards is more than decade, a period long enough for many children to turn 21.

Ironically, if they had come in illegally or failed to follow the immigration laws, they would have received special consideration from the Democrats who give priority to illegal immigrants.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal has reported quoting a State Department official that 100,000 green cards meant for those eligible because of their work status will go to waste if they are not distributed by the end of September.

Most of those affected will be Indians working in the tech sector “who have been waiting to become permanent residents in the US and are watching a prime opportunity to win a green card slip away”, the newspaper said.

The Journal said that this was because the government was not able to handle the green card applications because of backlogs caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the green cards not handed out by the end of next month will expire.

The newspaper pointed out that the the Democrats are trying to make six million people illegally in the country eligible for green cards through their $3.5-million budget package they are trying to get Congress to pass.

The loss of the 100,000 green cards would affect those who came to the country legally and have abided by the immigration laws. (IANS)

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced updated policy guidance affecting children born outside of the United States and the determination of whether children born through assisted reproductive technology (ART) are considered to have been born “in wedlock.” This policy update will allow a non-genetic, non-gestational legal parent of a child to transmit U.S. citizenship to the child if the parent is married to the child’s genetic or gestational parent at the time of the child’s birth, and the relevant jurisdiction recognizes both parents as the child’s legal parents.

“USCIS is taking a crucial step towards ensuring fair access and support for all families and their loved ones,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou. “We are committed to removing unnecessary barriers promoting policies for all people as they embark on their journey to citizenship and beyond.”

This guidance will also be applied to the family-based petitions for determining whether a child is born in wedlock. Previously, USCIS required that the child’s genetic parents (or the legal gestational parent and one of the genetic parents) be married to one another for a child to be considered born in wedlock.

In 2014, USCIS updated its policy to allow a parent who is the gestational and legal parent of a child under the law of the relevant jurisdiction at the time of the child’s birth to transmit U.S. citizenship to the child if all other citizenship requirements are met.

For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit uscis.gov or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn

In an incredibly significant move, the American Medical Association (AMA) has recommended that the “sex” designation be removed from the public facing portion of babies’ birth certificates, reserving that information for medical professionals.

The recommendation comes because “assigning sex using a binary variable and placing it on the public portion of the birth certificate perpetuates a view that it is immutable,” the AMA’s LGBTQ+ advisory committee stated in a June report. Further, the committee says that designating babies as either “male” or “female” at birth “fails to recognize the medical spectrum of gender identity.”

The current requirement to list a baby’s binary sex or gender category in publicly available documentation can lead to many challenges, disproportionately impacting trans, non-binary, and intersex people. For instance, people whose gender identity or presentation doesn’t match the sex on their birth certificate can experience discrimination or harrassment when registering for school, getting married, or adopting a child.

“We unfortunately still live in a world where it is unsafe in many cases for one’s gender to vary from the sex assigned at birth,” Jeremy Toler, MD, a delegate from GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality, told WebMD.

The AMA also points out that birth certificates have historically “been used to discriminate, promote racial hierarchies, and prohibit miscegenation.” “For that reason, the race of an individual’s parents is no longer listed on the public portion of birth certificates,” the report continues. “However, sex designation is still included on the public portion of the birth certificate, despite the potential for discrimination.”

Large numbers of trans people still don’t have documentation that reflects their lived gender. According to a study from earlier this year, an estimated 34% of trans Americans don’t have identification that aligns with their gender identity. Currently, 14 states offer a third gender option for birth certificates, but wiping out the public-facing sex designation could competely allow for uniform policies across all states.

Even though it’s proven that sex is not binary — just look at the existence of intersex people, as well as the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary people — right-wing media coverage has gone into full panic-mode about this recommendation. Though the report has not gotten much mainstream media coverage, conservative outlets have been all over it, including The Federalist, Fox News, and The National Review. It marks a continuation of the ongoing right-wing fear mongering campaign against trans rights and inclusion.

The AMA’s report notes that making this change “will not address all aspects of the inequities transgender and intersex people face, but such an effort would represent a valuable first step.” No word on whether it will stop cis people from continuing to stage gender reveals, though.

A record number of 40,000 immigrant families will be allowed to sponsor their parents and grandparents to bring them to Canada in 2021. This means 30,000 additional applications will be accepted as against the annual intake of 10,000 under the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP), which is aimed at family reunification.

Since Indo-Canadians are one of the fastest growing communities in Canada, they will be the major beneficiaries of the program. Applications can be submitted online over a two-week period, starting September 20.

Using the random selection process, those whose applications are accepted would be allowed to bring their parents and grandparents to Canada.

Since the sponsors have to show a certain minimum income requirement, the Canadian government has allowed them to include state benefits received during the Covid lockdown towards their income. This will ensure that applicants are not penalized for lost income during the pandemic.

Unveiling the program, Canadian Immigration Minister Marco E.L. Mendicino said, “The importance of family has never been clearer than during the pandemic. That is why we are delivering on our commitment to help more families reunite in Canada. “By strengthening the Parents and Grandparents Programme, inviting a record number of sponsors to apply, and by adjusting our requirements to adapt to the current times, we are once again proving our commitment to helping Canadian families stay together, and thrive together.” (IANS)