Category: Travel

National carrier Air India, which had commenced direct services from Mumbai to New York’s John F Kennedy airport in December 2018, has decided to discontinue the flights, reportedly owing to poor demand.

AI officials said the Mumbai-New York flight operation was causing losses to the airline. However, the airline will continue to operate direct flights from Mumbai to Newark.

An AI spokesperson said the Mumbai-New York flight, operated thrice a week, was temporarily suspended in February owing to the Pakistan airspace closure and was expected to resume in June.

“However, we won’t be resuming the services. The flight has been discontinued owing to poor load factor or low seat occupancy,” the spokesperson said.

The official said AI has not included the flight in their winter schedule, which usually commences from third week of October up to second week of March in the next year.

Other AI flight operations to the US from Delhi have been witnessing up to 80% seat occupancy.

AI operates Boeing B777-ER aircraft to operate flights to Newark, Washington, Chicago (from Hyderabad via Delhi), San Francisco and New York from Delhi.

The national carrier had planned to commence the direct flight from Mumbai to New York, thrice a week, from October 2018.

However, it had to delay the operations to December owing to fleet crunch.

Meanwhile, the flying time of US-bound flights from Delhi has seen an increase by three hours as they are being re-routed via Mumbai or Ahmedabad. This has led to heavy losses for the airline, said AI officers.

Air India has 16 Boeing B777-ER planes, of which four were grounded because of unavailability of spare parts in October. However, according to AI chairman and managing director (CMD), Ashwani Lohani, all the planes are operational now.

In October, AI had re- launched its other direct Mumbai-Frankfurt flight, which was suspended in 2010.

A Silicon Valley-based IT company has filed a lawsuit against the US government for denying the most sought-after H-1B visa to a highly qualified Indian professional, terming the renunciation “arbitrary” and a “clear abuse of discretion”.

Xterra Solutions alleged in its lawsuit that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) improperly denied H-1B visa to Praharsh Chandra Sai Venkata Anisetty, 28, whom it had hired as a Business System Analyst.

The company’s H-1B petition on behalf of Mr Anisetty was denied on the sole ground that the job offered to him did not qualify as an H-1B specialty occupation, the lawsuit said. “The denial is not supported by substantial evidence in the record, is contrary to established legal precedent, and is arbitrary, capricious and constitutes a clear abuse of discretion,” the company alleged and urged the Northern District of California US District Court to set aside the USCIS order.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The most sought-after visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by the US Congress. The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US masters degree or higher are exempt from the cap.

Mr Anisetty holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Electronics and Communication Engineering) as well as a Master’s of Science degree in Information Technology and Management from the University of Texas at Dallas. He currently holds valid H-4 dependent status through his wife, the principal beneficiary of an H-1B application.

Simone Burns gets six-month sentence for ‘insulting and upsetting act’ during Air India flight

 Simone Burns, 50, outside Isleworth crown court in London ahead of her sentencing on Thursday, last week. A lawyer who spat at a flight attendant during a racist foul-mouthed tirade after she was refused alcohol on a nine-hour business class flight has been jailed for six months.

Judge Nicholas Wood, sentencing at Isleworth crown court, told Simone Burns: “The experience of a drunk and irrational person in the confines of an aircraft is frightening, not least on a long-haul flight and poses a potential risk to safety.”

The judge noted that “such offences are often committed by people of impeccable character”.

Although the aircraft was not at risk by Burns’s behaviour, the judge said “for the luckless and unfortunate passengers and crew there is no escape at 30,000ft”.

He added that “spitting straight into a crew member’s face at close range is a particularly insulting and upsetting act”.

Burns, of Hove, sat quietly in the dock as she was sentenced to six months for being drunk on an aircraft and two months for assault.

The sentences are to be served concurrently after she previously pleaded guilty to the charges.

Burns, 50, who is known as Simone O’Broin, was initially served three bottles of red wine but declared “I’m a fucking international lawyer” when she was denied more on an Air India flight from Mumbai to London on 11 November 2018.

She also called staff “Indian money-grabbing cunts” and smoked a cigarette in the toilets during the tirade, which was condemned by a member of the cabin staff as unlike anything he had seen during his 30-year aviation career.

The lawyer, who is Irish and has worked with refugees around the world, unleashed a barrage of abuse in a prolonged rant which also saw her spit and grab the arm of the steward, the court heard.

Burns was also ordered to pay £300 compensation to the crew member who was assaulted.

The nine-hour flight took off at 4.10am as Burns sat in business class with 17 other passengers. After breakfast was served Burns was asking for alcohol and being “very obnoxious”, the court heard.

She was served with three 25cl bottles of red wine an hour into the flight. She had also complained that her TV was not positioned correctly. She had gone to the galley and demanded drinks when she stood back and spat into the crew member’s face.

Burns also grabbed the report the crew member was writing and continued with her abusive behaviour, the court heard.

The court was told that this crew member later said: “In the 34 years I have worked for Air India this is the first time I have been treated like this by a woman. I felt abused.”

The judge said he was satisfied the offence was racially aggravated and that the Air India passengers must have been “extremely upset” by Burns’s behaviour and the language she used.

The judge told Burns: “The fact remains that you were drunk and obnoxious almost from the beginning to the end. You were abusive, contemptuous and confrontational and used appalling language.”

He added: “You are a woman, not just of good character but a positive and impeccable character – a righter of wrongs. What this has done, thanks to social media, [has meant] you have had death threats and been a hermit in your home. “You are a person who has done good work throughout your life.”

The prosecutor, Caroline Paul, told the court that one of the crew members who dealt with Burns later described her as being “continually abusive in the nine-hour flight and in his 30 years as a flight purser he had never witnessed such behavior”.

Burns was given a verbal warning and was then arrested after the flight touched down.

As the April 15 tax deadline approaches, overall public views of the fairness of the nation’s tax system have changed only modestly since 2017, before passage of major tax legislation. However, partisan differences on tax fairness have increased considerably since then, and now are wider than at any point in at least two decades.

Two years ago, Republicans and Democrats had similar views of the fairness of the tax system. Today, 64% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the present tax system is very or moderately fair; just half as many Democrats and Democratic leaners (32%) view the tax system as fair. The share of Republicans who say the tax system is fair has increased 21 percentage points since 2017. Over this period, the share of Democrats viewing the tax system as fair has declined nine points.

The survey by Pew Research Center, conducted March 20-25 among 1,503 adults, finds that more than a year after the new tax law was enacted, public approval remains relatively unchanged (36% approve of the tax law, while 49% disapprove). However, fewer Republicans strongly approve of the law than did so in January 2018.

About seven-in-ten Republicans (71%) approve of the tax law, including 43% who strongly approve. Early last year, about the same share of Republicans approved of the tax law (75%), but a majority (57%) strongly approved.

Most Democrats continue to express negative views of the tax law. Today, 79% of Democrats disapprove, including 59% who strongly disapprove.

Americans are about as likely to say they understand how the tax law affects them as was the case in January 2018. A majority of Americans say they understand how the tax law has affected them and their family “very well” (26%) or “somewhat well” (37%). However, a third say they understand the law’s impact not too well or not at all well.

The public’s overall frustrations with the federal tax system have changed little since April 2017, the survey finds.

Overall, about six-in-ten Americans say they are bothered “a lot” by the feeling that some corporations (62%) and wealthy people (60%) do not pay their fair share in taxes.

Fewer American express strong concerns about the complexity of the tax system (39% say they are bothered a lot by this), the amount they pay in taxes (27%) and whether poor people pay their fair share in taxes (16%).

The public’s views of the fairness of the U.S. economic system have changed little in recent years – and remain deeply divided along partisan lines. Currently, 63% of Americans say the “economic system unfairly favors powerful interests,” while just 34% say it is “generally fair to most Americans.” About twice as many Democrats (81%) as Republicans (40%) say the country’s economic system is unfair.

Similarly, opinions on whether corporate profits are excessive have been stable. A 56% majority says business corporations make too much profit, compared with 39% who say their profits are “fair and reasonable.” While 72% of Democrats say corporations make too much profit, only 38% of Republicans say the same.

Partisans close divisions on some concerns over the tax system as other divisions widen

While increasing shares of Democrats say they are bothered “a lot” by the feeling that some corporations and wealthy people do not pay their fair share in taxes (79% of Democrats say this about each), Republicans’ concerns over these issues have lessened.

Today, 42% of Republicans say they are bothered a lot by the feeling that some corporations do not pay their fair share of taxes (down from 55% in 2015). And just 37% of Republicans are bothered a great deal by the feeling that some wealthy people do not pay their fair share (49% said this in 2015).

Republicans’ concerns over the complexity of the tax system and how much they pay in taxes also have declined. About four-in-ten Republicans (39%) say they are bothered a lot by the complexity of the tax system, down 15 percentage points since 2015 and 10 points since 2017. Democrats’ views have changed little since 2015; today, 40% say they are bothered a lot by the complexity of the tax system.

There has been a modest decrease in the share of Republicans who say they are bothered a lot by the amount they pay in taxes (27% now, 35% two years ago). Over the past two years, there has been a comparable rise in the share of Democrats saying they are bothered a lot by how much they pay in taxes (28% now, 21% in 2017).

Stark differences in views of tax fairness between higher-income Republicans and Democrats

Today, about two-thirds of Republicans and Republican leaners (64%) say the present federal tax system is very or moderately fair; only about a third of Democrats and Democratic leaners (32%) say the same. In October 2017, there was not a significant gap in Republicans’ and Democrats’ views of the fairness of the tax system.

While Republicans and Democrats across income categories differ in their views of tax fairness, the gaps are widest – and the shift most pronounced – among those with family incomes of $75,000 or more. Currently, 68% of Republicans with incomes of at least $75,000 say the tax system is very or moderately fair, up from just 37% in 2017. By contrast, the share of Democrats who view the tax system as fair has declined 19 percentage points since then (from 40% to 21%).

Canada just recorded its biggest influx of immigrants in more than a century. The country added 71,131 immigrants in the final three months of 2018, for a full year increase of 321,065, according to the latest estimates released Thursday by Statistics Canada in Ottawa. The annual increase is the largest since 1913 — when 401,000 immigrants flocked to the country — and the fourth largest in historical data going back to 1852.

The inflows helped the nation’s population growth top half a million people for the first time since the late 1950s, the statistics agency said, and are part of a boom in international migration that includes a surge in non-permanent residents like foreign students. It’s been a welcome tailwind for an economy coping with aging demographics and other drags like record household debt.

The increase in international migration, for example, has helped fuel a surge in employment — even amid sluggish indicators in other parts of the economy — since immigrants tend to be of working age. Including other forms of migration such as non-permanent residents, the country recorded a 425,245 increase in international migration last year — the largest in data going back to 1972.

The immigration numbers include regular refugee inflows, but not those crossing the border illegally. Those are counted as non-permanent residents. The Statistics Canada data don’t provide a breakdown of refugee numbers.

The influx helped Canada’s population grow by 528,421 last year, which is the biggest increase since the late 1950s, Statistics Canada said. In percentage terms, Canada’s population increased 1.4 percent last year, the fastest since 1990 and the strongest among Group of Seven countries.

The strong immigration numbers also make up for slower natural population growth. Canada’s natural population increase, or the number of births less deaths, fell to 103,176 in 2018, the lowest level since at least the late 1940s.

On February 15th, the Sikh Coalition joined other civil rights organizations, immigration attorneys and activists for a day of action in response to Sikh and Cuban detainees protesting their detention conditions and unfair asylum bond denials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) El Paso Processing Center.

Sikh Coalition Legal Director, Amrith Kaur, and Community Development Manager, Inderpreet Kaur, joined Michigan immigration attorney, Ruby Kaur, to meet with Sikh detainees – including those who had been force-fed after hunger striking – inside the El Paso and Otero detention facilities. The visit was to assess detention center conditions, the health and treatment of the detainees and to ensure the rights to a fair judicial process were respected. They also met with U.S. Representative Escobar’s office and called for a congressional inquiry into the detention conditions.

“Nobody should flee their home country, pass their credible fear asylum interview and then spend the next year being called “Indian garbage” by ICE officers,” said Sikh Coalition Legal Director, Amrith Kaur. “There is absolutely no excuse for the violations that are occurring here.”

The Sikh Coalition was initially denied the right to visit with Sikh detainees at both the El Paso and Otero detention facilities, but finally was able to meet with 42 detainees, including those on the hunger strike.

Since January, when news broke that several Sikh detainees were on hunger strike protesting their detention, the Sikh Coalition has engaged to raise concerns about their physical safety, not sharing detainee information with the Indian Consulate, and protecting their religious rights inside the detention facility. On February 12th, the Sikh Coalition sent a demand letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and key congressional and senate offices insisting on further investigation and oversight related on all three issues.

Since then, the DHS Civil Rights division has launched a series of follow-ups to inquire into the Sikh detainees’ safety and religious rights, and the Sikh Coalition has demanded a meeting with ICE officials from the El Paso Processing Center. On Wednesday, February 13th, a U.S. district judge insisted that the government stop force-feeding two of the Sikh detainees. However, several Sikh detainees across the country remain on hunger strike as they continue to protest their conditions and unfair asylum bond denials.

“The Sikh Coalition does not provide immigration legal services, but as a civil rights organization, we have a responsibility to make sure that our government is respecting Sikh detainees’ religious rights, treating them without prejudice throughout the judicial process and further ensuring that their human rights are not violated here in the United States. For our organization, this is about making sure that everyone has equal access to due process and is treated with fairness,” said Sikh Coalition Executive Director, Satjeet Kaur.

The Sikh Coalition has previously provided support to detainees whose civil rights are being violated because they are not permitted to freely practice their religious beliefs while detained. Last year, this support included providing background expertise on Sikh religious observance as part of a court filing for the Oregon Federal Defender’s Office, which represents a number of Sikh detainees at the Sheridan Detention Center. This court filing, in part, led to the detention facility changing their policy and allowing Sikhs to maintain their dastaars.

Additionally, the Sikh Coalition continues working with organizations and sangats to gather actionable data on Sikhs who are detained so that we can better identify needs and resources. This support includes making dastaars, gutkas, parsad, and clean prayer space available at detention facilities and connecting detainees to Punjabi translators and lawyers, while providing oversight on humanitarian conditions within the detention facilities.

Traveler’s senior aviation correspondent Barbara Peterson says the A380 had its doubters from the start. “In fact, 12 years ago many aviation insiders thought the A380 was outdated before even before it took flight, questioning the rationale behind a plane that could carry twice as many people as the next-biggest jet, the 747,” she says. “While some airline marketers raved about the ‘real estate windfall’ they’d get from all that extra room, others worried about prosaic issues like the heavy, mostly-metal jet’s fuel consumption.”

One such worrier? Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia, who predicted in a 2006 interview with Peterson that, “In a few years, the A380 is just going to be an old chunk of metal with old engines. It’s almost last generation.” Sadly, it didn’t even take a full generation for that prophecy to come to pass, Peterson notes, as lighter, all-composite aircraft with advanced technology arrived to take the place of the superjumbo.

No U.S. airlines fly the jet, and sales have been limited even with some of the world’s biggest carriers, including Air France, Qantas, British Airways, Korean Air, and Lufthansa. Dubai-based Emirates, the largest operator of the A380, is particularly known for its design of the planes, which have an expansive all first- and business-class upper deck, replete with a bar and shower suites. The airline had more A380s on order, but said Thursday it had agreed to replace some A380s with A350 and smaller A330 planes.

“While we are disappointed to have to give up our order, and sad that the program could not be sustained, we accept that this is the reality of the situation,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the chairman and CEO of Emirates, in a statement. “For us, the A380 is a wonderful aircraft loved by our customers and our crew. It is a differentiator for Emirates. We have shown how people can truly fly better on the A380.”

Still, that doesn’t mean all A380s will disappear immediately. More than 200 of the superjumbo planes are currently flying, and will most likely continue to do so into the next decade, reports CNN. Just a few of the routes where you’ll be able to fly the plane: Paris to New York on Air France, Honolulu to Tokyo on All Nippon Airways, Frankfurt to Shanghai on Lufthansa, Singapore to Sydney on Singapore Airlines, and Dubai to Auckland, New Zealand on Emirates.

On Saturday, January 19, 2019, leading NYC-based immigrant women’s advocacy organization, Sakhi for South Asian Women (Sakhi), commenced their 30th Anniversary with their participation in the 2019 Women’s March on both New York City and Washington, D.C.

As an official partner of the March on NYC and a Steering Committee member of the March on D.C., Sakhi convened 35 supporters and allies to advocate for progressive local and national discourse around equity and inclusivity. “It is a privilege to be able to march with my community”, says Sarika Patel, a member of Sakhi’s contingent. “The negative news we see and hear everywhere makes it so easy to feel discouraged. But, the sheer quantity of people who came out to march today is testament to the fact that there is never a shortage of like-minded individuals committed to change.”

Sakhi exists as the second-oldest South Asian women’s organization in the United States and recognizes that systemic impact demands the power of a collective. “This is an immensely critical time for women’s empowerment and gender justice,” says Executive Director, Kavita Mehra. “This administration’s continuous abuse of power must be met with accountability and we will continue mobilizing with our allies and supporters. The Women’s March provided us with the opportunity to advance a meaningful agenda that protects our communities from attacks on our dignity and self determination.”

Since its inception, Sakhi has responded to more than 10,000 survivors of violence and consistently mobilized New York City’s South Asian immigrant community to take a stand against abuse. Throughout 2019, the organization will highlight their 30 years with celebratory events across the city.

Chicago IL: The Passport Seva Program has brought in a huge transformation towards delivery of Passport Services in India. This has seen a sea change in last 4 ½ years.

In the year 2017, there was a 19% growth in passport related services. The monthly submission of applications has crossed one million marks for the first time. More than six crores passports have been issued through the Pasport Seva system. The Ministry took many significant steps to improve the service delivery experience for the citizens. Not only did the work of simplifying Passport rules has been achieved with the same vigour but passport services have also been taken closer to the doorsteps of the citizens. The Ministry with Department of Posts took the decision to start Passport Seva Kendars in Head Post Offices. As a result, 236 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) have been operationalised as on date and many more are in pipeline. This when added to 36 Passport Offices and 93 erstwhile Passport Seva Kendras makes a total of 365 Passport Offices for public.

The Ministry has initiated the integration of Passport Seva Program at all Indian Embassies and Consulates across the globe. As part of this initiative, the Ministry successfully initiated the Pilot at High Commission of India, London followed by Consulate General of India, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

In the United States of America, the Ministry has completed the implementation of this program at its Embassy in Washington, D.C., CGI New York, CGI San Francisco, CGI Atlanta and CGI Houston. It is a matter of great pleasure for the Ministry to launch the Global Passport Seva Program at Consulate General of India, Chicago for the Indian diaspora residing here, thus making all Indian Consulates and Embassy located in the US, live with the new system. The new system will help in easy and convenient application submission process, will usher-In standardization, digital overhauling, end-to-end status tracking and enhance security.

The Government of India planned to roll out the Global Passport Seva Program at all Indian Embassies/ Consulates within next 3-4 months.

“Share our pride: celebrate our work place”

New figures released on Thursday show a rise in the number of visas granted to Indian professionals, visitors, students and family members, but also reflect the Brexit reality of more EU citizens leaving the United Kingdom.

Indians were granted the highest number of visitor visas during the year ending September 2018: up 41,224 (or 10%) to 4,68,923; Chinese and Indian nationals alone accounted for just under half (47%) of all visit visas granted.

The demand for Indian professionals continued during the year, with 55 per cent of all Tier 2 (skilled) visas granted to them, the figures released by the Office for National Statistics show.

The number of Indian students coming to study at UK universities also showed a 33 per cent rise, to 18,735. Chinese and Indian students accounted for almost half of all students visas granted during the year.

There was also an increase in the family-related visas for Indians (up 881 to 3,574). The number of EEA family permits given to Indians (members of families of EU citizens) was also up 4,245 to 8,360, official sources said.

Figures showing more EU citizens leaving than arriving in the UK prompted renewed concern over the impact of Brexit. The net migration from the EU to the UK slumped to a six-year low, while non-EU migration is the highest in more than a decade.

Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said: “EU migrants have been leaving in larger numbers since the referendum, and net inflows have greatly decreased”.

“The lower value of the pound is likely to have made the UK a less attractive place to live and work and economic conditions in several of the top countries of origin for EU migrants have improved”.

Four U.S. colleges have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, stating that a new policy which was implemented Aug. 9 adversely impacts international students.

Indians constitute the second-largest population of international students, behind China. About 190,000 students from India are currently studying in the U.S. or completing their Optional Practical Training.

Formerly, students who stayed on after their course of study was completed only began to accrue “unlawful presence” after the Department of Homeland Security issued a formal finding of a status violation, or the day after an immigration judge issued an order of deportation.

But under the new policy, students begin accruing unlawful presence if they stay on even one day post-graduation. Accruing unlawful presence for more than 180 days could bar them from returning to the U.S. for a period of three to 10 years. (See earlier story.) The new policy also expressly prohibits international students from working: even informal jobs such as babysitting are considered to be in violation of the new policy.

The colleges that have filed suit include Haverford in Pennsylvania, the New School in New York, Guilford College in North Carolina, and Foothill-De Anza College in Cupertino, Calif. The lawsuit was filed in district court in North Carolina.

USCIS has said that the new policy is needed to reduce visa overstays. USCIS Director Lee Francis Cissna has previously stated: “F, J, and M nonimmigrants are admitted to the United States for a specific purpose, and when that purpose has ended, we expect them to depart, or to obtain another, lawful immigration status.”

“The message is clear: these nonimmigrants cannot overstay their periods of admission or violate the terms of admission and stay illegally in the U.S. anymore.”

But critics state the new policy is unduly harsh on international students, and imposes new burdens on an already-overburdened immigration system.

“Now, when a government official or immigration judge determines that an F, J, or M visa holder is out-of-status, the unlawful-presence clock will be backdated to the day on which defendants conclude that the visa holder first fell out-of-status,” the lawsuit filed against U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina states.

“The immigration system is beset with processing delays, and many of these status determinations are made when an individual is applying for new immigration benefits. Thus, the new policy’s use of a backdated unlawful-presence clock will render tens of thousands of F, J, and M visa holders subject to three- and ten-year reentry bars without any opportunity to cure,” stated the lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed this week lists “a multitude of ways in which a well-intentioned individual on an F, J, or M visa can be adjudicated out-of-status,” including by failing to alert his or her institution of a change of information, such as a change in address; failing to obtain approval for dropping below a minimum course load; or working without authorization or in excess of the allowable 20 hours on campus per week, reported the Web site Inside Higher Ed.

In addition to errors on the student’s part, the suit says that a student could be wrongly reported out of status because of errors made by a college official in updating the SEVIS database. Another scenario could be that USCIS retroactively determines a student fell out of status on a given date if it found that the student’s work placement through the optional practical training or curricular practical training programs did not meet the letter of the regulations.

The lawsuit states that immigration court backlogs could mean a lot more students accruing unlawful presence as they wait for their cases to be adjudicated.

“We think this is going to snare thousands upon thousands of well-intentioned students who are trying to comply, but mistakes happen or they just can’t predict what USCIS might determine down the road,” Paul Hughes, a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown and the lead lawyer for the four colleges that have sued to challenge the new unlawful-presence policy, told Inside Higher Ed.

India’s national carrier Air India will start flight services to New York from Mumbai, besides resuming services to Frankfurt, which it discontinued in 2010, from winters this year.

At present, the government-run airline flies to New York, Washington, San Francisco from New Delhi; Chicago from Hyderabad through New Delhi and to Newark from Mumbai.

Among European cities, Air India flies directly to destinations such as Stockholm, Madrid, Vienna, Paris, London, Rome, Birmingham and Milan.

“Air India is set to spread its wings further in the US and European skies from the coming winters. As part of this, it will launch flight services for the first time to New York from Mumbai and restart operations to Frankfurt in Germany,” a source said.

These two new flights are expected to be launched from October, the source added.

When contacted, an Air India spokesperson confirmed the proposed roll out of the two new international flights from winters.

“The two new flights are a part of our winter schedule. We have all regulatory approvals in place for the Frankfurt flight and the same for JFK services are being processed,” the spokesperson said.

The winter schedule of airlines in the country starts from the last Sunday of October and remains in force till the last week of March, after which, the summer schedule comes into effect. Air India is the only domestic carrier which flies to destinations in the US directly.

According to the source, the Mumbai-Frankfurt flight will be four-times-a-week service and be operated by the airline’s flagship jetliner Boeing 787-800, while the Mumbai- New York will be three-times per week service with Boeing 777-300ER.

Following the launch of the two services, Air India will be offering a total of 36 weekly flights to the US cities from New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, the source added.

Currently, it operates nine flights per week to San Francisco, seven times a week to Chicago, Newark and JFK and three weekly services to Washington.

Foreign national students and exchange workers have been given a little breathing room in a new policy memo. It provides a grace period while they apply for reinstatement if they have fallen out of status and overstayed their visa.

The memo from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) clarifies that students and exchange visitors who hold F, J and M visas and have violated the terms of their status will not accrue “unlawful presence” while their applications are pending if they file for reinstatement in a timely manner.

The memo amends an earlier policy guidance proposing changes in how the agency calculates unlawful presence for students and exchange visitors. Unlawful presence refers to someone being in the United States without proper authorization and can include instances where the person has remained in the U.S. after their duration of status has expired or entered the country illegally.

As of Aug. 9, when the policy took effect, F, J and M visa holders who violate the terms of their status will be considered unlawfully present the day after the violation occurs. Violations that occurred before Aug. 9 will begin to accrue unlawful presence from that date. Previously, unlawful presence was triggered only when USCIS formally processed a visa overstay or a judge issued a deportation order.

The consequences of unlawful presence are significant, said Justin Storch, manager of agency liaison at the Council for Global Immigration, an affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management.

In May, after USCIS issued the draft proposal, Doug Rand, former assistant director for entrepreneurship in the Obama White House who helped implement policies that affect foreign students, told India-West: “This is a pretty dramatic change that could affect more than 1.5 million people per year.”

“We should be welcoming the best and brightest — if our country loses its luster, we will lose out on this extraordinary competitive advantage,” stated Rand, the co-founder of Boundless, a technology company that helps families navigate the immigration process. “There are ways to deter the relatively small percentage of students who deliberately and unambiguously overstay their visas, however, without creating major uncertainty for the vast majority who are trying in good faith to play by the rules,” said Rand.

After considering the feedback received during a 30-day public comment period that ended on June 11, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has published a revised final policy memorandum related to unlawful presence in the country.

Under the revised final policy memorandum, effective Aug. 9, 2018, immigrants on the student (F visa), exchange visitor (J visa) or vocational student (M visa), who have overstayed their visas will have their accrual of unlawful presence suspended while their application is pending, according to a press release.

On May 10, USCIS posted a policy memorandum changing the way the agency calculates unlawful presence for those who were in non-immigrant status as the revised final memorandum supersedes the previous one and describes the rules for counting the unlawful presence of immigrants on F and M visas with timely-filed or approved reinstatement applications, as well as for immigrants on J visas who were reinstated by the Department of State.

“As a result of public engagement and stakeholder feedback, USCIS has adjusted the unlawful presence policy to address a concern raised in the public’s comments, ultimately improving how we implement the unlawful presence ground of inadmissibility as a whole and reducing the number of overstays in these visa categories,” Director L. Francis Cissna, is quoted saying in a press release.

“USCIS remains dedicated to protecting the integrity of our nation’s immigration system and ensuring the faithful execution of our laws. People who overstay or violate the terms of their visas should not remain in the United States. Foreign students who are no longer properly enrolled in school are violating the terms of their student visa and should be held accountable,” he added.

Also, on Aug. 7, the Department of Homeland Security announced the release of the FY 2017 Entry/Exit Overstay Report in which the estimated total overstay rates were lower in FY 2017 for immigrants on the F and J visas, however, those categories still have significantly higher overstay rates than other visa categories.

For purposes of counting unlawful presence, a timely reinstatement application for F or M status is one where the student has not been out of status for more than five months at the time of filing.

Under the revised final policy memorandum, the accrual of unlawful presence is suspended when the F or M non-immigrant files a reinstatement application within the five month window and while the application is pending with USCIS.

If the reinstatement application is denied, the accrual of unlawful presence resumes on the day after the denial.

It is incumbent on the non-immigrant to voluntarily leave the United States to avoid accruing more unlawful presence that could result in later inadmissibility under section 212(a)(9) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and whether or not the application for reinstatement is timely-filed, an F, J, or M non-immigrant whose application for reinstatement is ultimately approved will generally not accrue unlawful presence while out of status.

The Department of State administers the J-1 exchange visitor program, to include reinstatement requests and if they approve the reinstatement application of a J non-immigrant, then the individual will generally not accrue unlawful presence from the time the J non-immigrant fell out of status from the time he or she was reinstated.

In addition, the revised final policy memorandum corrects references to the Board of Immigration Appeals issuing orders of removal in the first instance.

The United Kingdom clarified that Indian students would face no change in the visa application even as New Delhi takes note of British decision to exclude Indian students from a new list of countries considered “low risk” in order to facilitate an easier visa application process to UK universities.

“Indian students will experience no change as a result of this announcement – there is no limit on the number of genuine Indian students who can come to study in the UK. The fact that the year ending March 2018 saw a 30% increase in Tier 4 visas issued to Indian students is proof that the current system allows for strong growth in this area”, said the spokesperson of British High Commission in New Delhi.

On a question why Indian students were not part of the “low risk” category, the spokesperson said “This was a routine review of the Appendix H list conducted by the Home Office, which is regularly updated due to the fact that countries’ risk profiles change over time. Analysis of objective data has shown that India remains below the level required to consider a change at the current time.”

In changes to its immigration policy tabled in Parliament on Friday, the UK Home Office announced a relaxation of the Tier 4 visa category for overseas students from around 25 countries. The list includes countries like the US, Canada and New Zealand, the Home Office added China, Bahrain and Serbia as countries from where students would face reduced checks.

Commenting on the development, an Indian official said “We have taken note of the recent announcements. We always maintained that the easy mobility of students and professionals are an important aspect of ties.”

Lord Karan Bilimoria, Indian-origin entrepreneur and President of the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) described the move of not including India in the “low risk” group as an “insult” to India and another example of Britain’s “economically illiterate and hostile attitude”.

From next Saturday (June 30) passengers flying to the United States may not be allowed to carry more than 12 ounce or about 350 grams of powdery substance in hand bags. The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has enacted this rule after a foiled attempt to put an improvised explosive device using powder explosives on a Gulf carrier in Australia last year. Airlines are advising US-bound flyers to put such things in check-in bags to avoid extra screening of the same and possibly being thrown if the security personnel are not sure what it is.

Air India has a number of daily nonstops from Delhi and Mumbai to US destinations+ like New York, Newark, Chicago, Washington an San Francisco. United has a daily direct from Newark to Delhi and Mumbai. Delta will start flights to Mumbai next year. From next Saturday everyone traveling with powdery substances including dry spices, talcum or cosmetic powders will need to check them in if carrying more than 350 grams that stuff.

TSA says “powder-like substances greater than 12 ounce/350 ml must be placed in a separate bin for X-ray screening. They may require additional screening and containers may need to be opened. For your convenience, we encourage you to place non-essential powders greater than 12 ounce in checked bags.”

Airlines have accordingly started advising passengers. Singapore Airlines says on its website in a June 18 post: “Additional security measures for non-stop US-bound flights: TSA may require customers travelling on non-stop flights to US to undergo enhanced security measures. Such checks may include the inspection of powder-like substances where powder-like substances that are 12 ounce (350ml) or larger will not be allowed for carriage in the cabin. Customers are advised to place such items in their checked baggage.” “Medically-prescribed powder-like substances, baby formula, human remains and duty-free powder containers inside a properly sealed secure tamper evident bag (STEB) may be brought into the cabin. Customers are advised to proceed to the boarding gates early to allow sufficient time for the enhanced security measures,” Singapore Airlines says.

American Airlines’ website says: “Carry-on restriction: powder-like substances. For international travel to the US, powder-like substances over 12 ounce/350 ml should be placed in checked bags. Powders over 12 ounce/350 ml in carry-on bags may be prohibited. Effective June 30, 2018.”

On May 25, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen announced that an additional 15,000 H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas will be available for Fiscal Year 2018. In this determination, Secretary Nielsen determined there are not sufficient, qualified, U.S. workers available to perform temporary non-agriculture labor to satisfy the needs of American businesses in FY18. This allocation is in addition to the 66,000 visas already issued this year. Secretary Nielsen made this decision after consulting with Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, members of Congress, and business owners.

“The limitations on H-2B visas were originally meant to protect American workers, but when we enter a situation where the program unintentionally harms American businesses it needs to be reformed,” said Secretary Nielsen. “I call on Congress to pass much needed reforms of the program and to expressly set the number of H-2B visas in statute.  We are once again in a situation where Congress has passed the buck and turned a decision over to DHS that would be better situated with Congress, who knows the needs of the program.  As Secretary, I remain committed to protecting U.S. workers and strengthening the integrity of our lawful immigration system and look forward to working with Congress to do so.”

The H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker program was designed to serve U.S. businesses unable to find a sufficient number of qualified U.S. workers to perform nonagricultural work of a temporary nature. Congress set the annual H-2B visa cap at 66,000. A maximum of 33,000 H-2B visas are available during the first half of the fiscal year, and the remainder, including any unused H-2B visas from the first half of that fiscal year, is available starting April 1 through September 30.

On February 27, 2018, USCIS determined that it had received sufficient H-2B petitions to meet the full FY 2018 statutory cap of 66,000.

In the FY 2018 Omnibus, Congress delegated its authority to the Secretary to increase the number of temporary nonagricultural worker visas available to U.S. employers through September 30, just as it did in the FY 2017 Omnibus. In the intervening time since enactment of the FY 2018 Omnibus, the Secretary consulted with the Secretary of Labor on the issue, in accordance with Congressional requirements, and developed this rule.

Starting today, eligible petitioners for H-2B visas can file Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker.  Eligible petitioners must submit a supplemental attestation on Form ETA 9142-B-CAA-2 with their petition.

Details on eligibility and filing requirements are available in the final temporary rule published today and on the Increase in H-2B Nonimmigrant Visas for FY 2018 webpage.

DHS is committed to ensuring that our immigration system is implemented lawfully and that American workers are protected. If members of the public have information that a participating employer may be abusing this program, DHS invites them to submit information to ReportH2BAbuse@uscis.dhs.gov and include information identifying the H-2B petitioning employer and relevant information that leads them to believe that the H-2B petitioning employer is abusing the H-2B program. For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit uscis.gov or follow us on Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis), and Facebook (/uscis).

Latest Office of National Statistics (ONS) data shows Indians as the largest chunk of skilled work visas granted to nationals from outside the EU, indicating that they are likely to be the hardest hit by the UK visa cap

Indian engineers, IT professionals, doctors and teachers are among 6,080 skilled workers holding a UK job offer who were denied visas to the UK since December 2017, according to a data released on Wednesday, indicating that Indians are likely to be the hardest hit by the country’s annual visa cap.

The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) acquired the figures via a Freedom of Information (FOI) to the UK Home Office to highlight the “scale of the problem” being created due to the British government’s annual immigration cap for skilled professionals hired by UK-based companies from outside the European Union (EU).

Latest UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures record Indians as the largest chunk of skilled work visas granted (57 per cent) to nationals from outside the EU, indicating that Indians are likely to be the hardest hit by the visa cap.

“Science, engineering and technology has long benefited from mobility of talent and collaboration across borders – including between India and the UK. The figures we’ve obtained from the Home Office show that currently our immigration system is hampering this ambition,” said CaSE Deputy Director Naomi Weir.

“We’re calling on government to make immediate changes so that employers can access the talent they need, and in the long term to ensure that the UK immigration system is aligned with the ambition to be open and welcoming to science, engineering and tech talent,” she said.

While there is no nationality-wise breakdown of the 6,080 visa refusals under the Tier 2 category between December 2017 and March 2018, it has emerged that more than half (3,500) were for engineering, IT, technology, teaching and medical roles.

The cap under the Tier 2 visa category to allow companies to bring in professionals from outside the EU is set at 20,700 per year, with a monthly limit of around 1,600. Until December 2017, that limit had been exceeded only once in almost six years but since then that limit has been breached nearly every month.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association Council (BMA), called for a more “flexible” immigration system which does not end up turning away doctors desperately needed to fill staff shortages in the state-funded National Health Service (NHS).

“The Tier 2 visa quota has been reached for the fifth month in a row, yet there are still more than 100,000 NHS posts unfilled, with vacancy rates rising. At a time when the NHS is under enormous strain and struggling to fill positions, the current visa restrictions and arbitrary caps for non-EU workers entering the UK are inexplicable and threatening patient care and safety,” he said.

Last month, it had emerged that at least 100 Indian doctors were denied visas after being recruited by the NHS due to the Tier 2 monthly quota being over-subscribed.

In other fields as well, experts warn that access to overseas professionals remains crucial for the growth and development of the UK economy.

“Employers know and accept that there is a need for highly skilled immigrants as do the majority of the general public. The people standing in the way are those who set random immigration limits that seem to be plucked out of the air for political purposes,” said Nobel Prize winning Indian-origin scientist Prof Venki Ramakrishnan, the president of the UK’s Royal Society.

CaSE has been lobbying the UK government to make job offers in areas where there were clear shortages, such as science and engineering, exempt from the Home Office cap.

“The cap is beginning to cause damage and it needs to be addressed quickly. In the immediate term, shortage and PhD level roles should be made exempt from the cap. In the long term, an immigration system for a Global Britain that supports research and innovation should not feature a cap on the international specialists we want to attract,” said CaSE Executive Director Dr Sarah Main, who had written to the British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier this year on the issue.

The UK Home Office said that while it recognises the “contribution” of international professionals, it is important that the country’s immigration system ensures that employers look first to the UK resident labour market before recruiting from overseas.

“When demand exceeds the monthly available allocation of Tier 2 (General) places, priority is given to applicants filling a shortage or PhD-level occupations. No occupation on the Shortage Occupation List has been refused a place,” a Home Office spokesperson said.

It also highlighted that any applications refused during over-subscribed months can re-apply for consideration in the next month. However, critics believe the the Shortage Occupation List does not go far enough and the entire quota-based system in unworkable.

 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that the agency will begin phasing in use of the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) Signature Confirmation Restricted Delivery service to mail Green Cards and other secure documents beginning April 30, 2018.

The first phase will affect documents that need to be re-mailed because they have been returned as non-deliverable. These documents include Permanent Resident Cards (also called Green Cards), Employment Authorization Cards, and Travel Booklets. Applicants who have changed mailing addresses during the course of the application process are more likely to have their secure documents sent with the new delivery method, which USCIS will expand to all secure documents in the future.

As part of the new delivery method, applicants must present identification to sign for their documents upon delivery. They also have the option to designate an agent to sign on their behalf by completing the Postal Service’s PS Form 3801, Standing Delivery Order (PDF) or PS Form 3801-A, Agreement by a Hotel, Apartment House, or the Like (PDF). Applicants can sign up for USPS Informed Delivery to receive delivery status notifications. Applicants will also have the option to arrange for pickup at a post office at a convenient date and time by going to the USPS website and selecting “hold for pickup.”

Signature Confirmation Restricted Delivery increases the security, integrity, and efficiency of document delivery. The Signature Confirmation Restricted Delivery process provides better tracking and accuracy of delivery information, improving service to applicants.

Information on how to track delivery of secure documents is available on the USCIS website. For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit uscis.gov or follow us on Tw

The United States (USCISUS) Citizenship and Immigration Services announced April 6 that it has reached the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 visa cap for H-1B high skilled work visa applications, as well as the 20,000 “Master’s exemption” for those with U.S. advanced degrees, five days after it began accepting applications.

The agency did not announce how many applications it had received overall for fiscal year 2019; it will now assign the highly-coveted visa – allotted to highly-skilled workers, primarily from India – via a randomized lottery.

In its announcement, USCIS stated that it will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, will also not be counted toward the FY 2019 H-1B cap.

USCIS said it will also continue to accept and process petitions filed to: Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the U.S.; Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers; Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

Fewer India-based companies are filing for work-based visas. Data released by the Department of Labor shows a dramatic dip in the number of H-1B visa applications from Indian companies in 2017. Infosys, the largest user of the program, had filed 33,245 H-1B applications in 2015, but filed only 20,587 in 2017, a drop of more than 38 percent, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. Also significant was Wipro, which filed 12,201 H-1B applications in 2015, but only 5,812 in 2017, a 52 percent drop.

Conversely, Google, the largest U.S. user of the visa program, filed about 4,000 H-1B applications in 2015, and 5,288 in 2017, a jump of 30 percent. Facebook had a 71 percent increase in the number of applications, filing about 1,000 in 2015, and more than 1,700 in 2017. Tesla has tripled its H-1B workforce over the past three years, filing 971 applications in 2017. Uber doubled its H-1B workforce during that same time period, filing 732 applications in 2017.

Shivendra Singh, vice president for global trade development at the National Association of Software and Services Companies – NASSCOM – released a statement April 6, noting: “America’s economy is crying out for more skilled talent, especially in the IT sector. The large number of applications and the speed with which the annual cap is reached demonstrate the high demand for these workers.”

In a major relief to crew of Indian carriers flying to Saudi Arabia, the authorities there have stopped retaining passports of crew members on arrival. Two Indian airlines, Air India and Jet, fly to Saudi and their crew used to get passports back while flying out of the country. India had taken up the issue with the authorities there and Saudi has now stopped this practice.

An AI Spokesperson said: “Crew passports are not being retained, instead a number is entered in crew passport which has a limited validity and crew has to do bio-metric finger printing on each entry.” Jet also confirmed the move.

A senior pilot of Jet Airways had raised the issue with the aviation and external affairs ministry last summer. “A passport is a citizen’s personal proof of identity and nationality when in foreign land, without which a person’s status instantaneously declines to that of a refugee. (Saudi) cannot be allowed to treat its visitors with such disdain. We enter their airspace and country only at their request and permission,” the letter titled “passport retention – Saudi Arabia” sent to aviation and foreign ministries said.

While Saudi had been retaining crew passports for a long time, last July the crew of an Air India flight to Jeddah were detained during random checks for documents while travelling in the city. They were released after the airline intervened and told the police the crew did not have original documents since the same had been retained on arrival at Jeddah airport.

It”s all because of great personality like Maam Shushma Swaraj who sleeps less but thinks more of Indians. Allah grant her very healthy life. Jai Hind.Shoeb Ahmed

Last August, AI asked its crew members operating flights to Saudi Arabia to carry their names on the hotel letter pad along with the telephone numbers of the hotel, immigration and airport. “All crew are hereby informed that along with the crew permit and Air India identity cards in Jeddah, you are now required to carry the details of crew names written in Arabic on the letterhead of the hotel. The letterhead will also have the phone numbers of the hotel, immigration department and airport. All crew laying over at Jeddah are required to comply with the above requirements for their own safety,” AI had told its crew members who operated flights to Saudi.

With Saudi stopping this practice, crew members of Indian airlines can breathe easy there. This is the second step taken by Saudi in recent days in the field of aviation cooperation. The other being Air India operating its flights between Delhi and Israel over Saudi airspace enroute, in a first for any commercial airline flying to or from Israel in last 70 years.

From Pew Research

Most of the United States’ 20 largest immigrant groups experienced increases in naturalization rates between 2005 and 2015, with India and Ecuador posting the biggest increases among origin countries, according to Pew Research Center estimates of immigrants eligible for U.S. citizenship.

This trend came during a period when the total number of naturalized immigrants in the U.S. increased from 14.4 million in 2005 to 19.8 million in 2015, a 37% increase.

By 2015, eligible immigrants from India had one of the higher naturalization rates (80%) due to a 12-percentage-point increase in its naturalization rate since 2005. Only eligible immigrants from Ecuador (68% in 2015) had as large an increase. This is a bigger increase than for U.S. immigrants overall, among whom naturalization rates jumped from 62% in 2005 to 67% in 2015. (Eligible immigrants from Vietnam, 86%, and Iran, 85%, had the highest naturalization rates of any group in 2015.)

Only a few nations did not have increases. The naturalization rates among eligible immigrants from Honduras, China and Cuba declined or remained largely unchanged from 2005 to 2015 (the most recent year for which Pew Research Center estimates are available).

The naturalization rates in this analysis are cumulative, showing, in any given year, the percentage of immigrants living in the U.S. and eligible for U.S. citizenship who have ever naturalized and gained citizenship.

To be eligible for U.S. citizenship, immigrants must be age 18 or older, have resided in the U.S. for at least five years as lawful permanent residents (or three years for those married to a U.S. citizen), and be in good standing with the law, among other requirements. The multi-step process to obtain U.S. citizenship begins with submitting an application and paying a $725 fee, including an $85 biometric fee. It culminates with an oath of allegiance to the United States. Current processing times range from seven months to a year.

The U.S. government denied nearly 1 million naturalization applications from 2005 to 2015, or 11% of the 8.5 million applications filed during this time.

The roughly 19.8 million naturalized citizens in 2015 made up about 44% of the U.S. foreign-born population. Another roughly 11.9 million immigrants were lawful permanent residents, among whom an estimated 9.3 million were eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. Mexican immigrants are the largest group of lawful immigrants: About 2.5 million Mexican immigrants held U.S. citizenship and another 3.5 million were eligible to naturalize.

Mexican immigrants have long had among the lowest U.S. naturalization rates(42%) of any origin group. As of 2015, the naturalization rate among eligible immigrants from Mexico was similar to those from Honduras (43%) and Guatemala (44%).

In a Pew Research Center survey of Latino adults, lawful Mexican immigrants who had not applied for U.S. citizenship cited several reasons for not having done so: A lack of English proficiency, limited interest in applying for citizenship and the financial cost of the application (some pay for a lawyer in addition to the application fee, which can raise costs).

These barriers to citizenship also affect non-Mexican immigrants. Other factors may also affect whether an immigrant applies for U.S. citizenship. Close geographic proximity of origin countries to the U.S. may lower naturalization rates, in part because immigrants from countries near the U.S. are more likely to maintain strong ties to their countries of origin, increasing the likelihood that they move back to their home country without ever obtaining U.S. citizenship.

Benefits of U.S. citizenship include being able to vote in most elections, travel with a U.S. passport, apply for some federal government jobs, receive protection from deportation and participate in a jury, among other things. In addition, research shows immigrants who become U.S. citizens have higher incomes than those who do not.

Note: Pew Research Center estimates of the lawful permanent resident population and the number of immigrants who are eligible to naturalize differ from prior estimates released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security due to differences in methodology and data sources. For details, see the Methodology section of the Center’s report “Mexican Lawful Immigrants Among the Least Likely to Become U.S. Citizens.”

The U.S. has more immigrants than any other country in the world. Today, more than 40 million people living in the U.S. were born in another country, accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s migrants in 2015. The population of immigrants is also very diverse, with just about every country in the world represented among U.S. immigrants.

Pew Research Center regularly publishes statistical portraits of the nation’s foreign-born population, which include historical trends since 1960. Based on these portraits, here are answers to some key questions about the U.S. immigrant population.

How many people in the U.S. are immigrants?

The U.S. foreign-born population reached a record 43.2 million in 2015. Since 1965, when U.S. immigration laws replaced a national quota system, the number of immigrants living in the U.S. has more than quadrupled. Immigrants today account for 13.4% of the U.S. population, nearly triple the share (4.7%) in 1970. However, today’s immigrant share remains below the record 14.8% share in 1890, when 9.2 million immigrants lived in the U.S.

What is the legal status of immigrants in the U.S.?

Most immigrants (76%) are in the country legally, while a quarter are unauthorized. In 2015, 44% were naturalized U.S. citizens.

Some 27% of immigrants were permanent residents and 5% were temporary residents. Another 24% of all immigrants were unauthorized immigrants in 2015. From 1990 to 2007, the unauthorized immigrant population tripled in size – from 3.5 million to a record high of 12.2 million. During the Great Recession, the number declined by 1 million and since then has leveled off. In 2015, there were 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., accounting for 3.4% of the nation’s population.

The decline in the unauthorized immigrant population is due largely to a fall in the number from Mexico – the single largest group of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. Between 2007 and 2015, this group decreased by more than 1 million. Meanwhile, this decline was partly offset by a rise in the number from Central America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Not all lawful permanent residents choose to pursue U.S. citizenship. Those who wish to do so may apply after meeting certain requirements, including having lived in the U.S. for five years. In fiscal year 2016, 971,242 immigrants applied for naturalization. The number of naturalization applications has climbed in recent years, though the annual totals remain below those seen in previous years.

Generally, most immigrants eligible for naturalization apply to become citizens. However, Mexican lawful immigrants have the lowest naturalization rate overall. Language and personal barriers, lack of interest and financial barriers are among the top reasons for choosing not to naturalize cited by Mexican-born green card holders, according to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey.

Where do immigrants come from?

Mexico is the top origin country of the U.S. immigrant population. In 2015, 11.6 million immigrants living in the U.S. were from there, accounting for 27% of all U.S. immigrants. The next largest origin groups were those from China (6%), India (6%), the Philippines (5%) and El Salvador (3%).

By region of birth, immigrants from South and East Asia combined accounted for 27% of all immigrants, a share equal to that of Mexico. Other regions make up smaller shares: Europe/Canada (14%), the Caribbean (10%), Central America (8%), South America (7%), the Middle East (4%) and sub-Saharan Africa (4%).

Who is arriving today?

About 1 million immigrants arrive in the U.S. each year. In 2015, the top country of origin for new immigrants coming into the U.S. was India, with 110,000 people, followed by Mexico (109,000), China (90,000) and Canada (35,000).

By race and ethnicity, more Asian immigrants than Hispanic immigrants have arrived in the U.S. each year since 2010. Immigration from Latin America slowed following the Great Recession, particularly from Mexico, which has seen net losses in U.S. immigration over the past few years.

Asians are projected to become the largest immigrant group in the U.S. by 2055, surpassing Hispanics. In 2065, Pew Research Center estimates indicate that Asians will make up some 38% of all immigrants, Hispanics 31%, whites 20% and blacks 9%.

Is the immigrant population growing?

New immigrant arrivals have fallen, mainly due to a decrease in the number of unauthorized immigrants coming to the U.S. The fall in the growth of the unauthorized immigrant population can partly be attributed to more Mexican immigrants leaving the U.S. than coming in.

Looking forward, immigrants and their descendants are projected to account for 88% of U.S. population growth through 2065, assuming current immigration trends continue. In addition to new arrivals, U.S. births to immigrant parents will be important to future U.S. growth. In 2015, the percentage of women giving birth in the past year was higher among immigrants (7.4%) than among the U.S. born (5.8%). While U.S.-born women gave birth to over 3 million children that year, immigrant women gave birth to over 700,000.

How many immigrants have come to the U.S. as refugees?

Since the creation of the federal Refugee Resettlement Program in 1980, about million refugeeshave been resettled in the U.S – more than any other country.

In fiscal 2016, a total of 84,995 refugees were resettled in the U.S. The largest origin group of refugees was the Democratic Republic of the Congo, followed by Syria, Burma (Myanmar), Iraq and Somalia. Among all refugees admitted in that fiscal year, 38,901 are Muslims (46%) and 37,521 are Christians (44%). California, Texas and New York resettled nearly a quarter of all refugees admitted in fiscal 2016.

Where do most U.S. immigrants live?

Roughly half (46%) of the nation’s 43.2 million immigrants live in just three states: California (25%), Texas (11%) and New York (10%). California had the largest immigrant population of any state in 2015, at 10.7 million. Texas and New York had about 4.5 million immigrants each.

In terms of regions, about two-thirds of immigrants lived in the West (35%) and South (33%). Roughly one-fifth lived in the Northeast (21%) and 11% were in the Midwest.

In 2015, most immigrants lived in just 20 major metropolitan areas, with the largest populations in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. These top 20 metro areas were home to 27.9 million immigrants, or 65% of the nation’s total. Most of the nation’s unauthorized immigrant population lived in these top metro areas as well.

How do immigrants compare with the U.S. population overall in education?

Immigrants in the U.S. as a whole have lower levels of education than the U.S.-born population. In 2015, immigrants were three times as likely as the U.S. born to have not completed high school (29% vs 9%). However, immigrants were just as likely as the U.S. born to have a college degree or more, 31% and 30% respectively.

Educational attainment varies among the nation’s immigrant groups, particularly across immigrants from different regions of the world. Immigrants from Mexico (57%) and Central America (49%) are less likely to be high school graduates than the U.S. born (9%). On the other hand, immigrants from South and East Asia, Europe, Canada, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa were more likely than U.S.-born residents to have a bachelor’s or advanced degree.

Among all immigrants, those from South and East Asia (51%) and the Middle East (48%) were the most likely to have a bachelor’s degree or more. Immigrants from Mexico (6%) and Central America (9%) were the least likely to have a bachelor’s or higher.

How many immigrants are working in the U.S.?

In 2014, about 27 million immigrants were working in the U.S., making up some 17% of the total civilian labor force. Lawful immigrants made up the majority of the immigrant workforce at 19.5 million. An additional 8 million immigrant workers are unauthorized immigrants, a number little changed since 2009. They alone account for 5% of the civilian labor force.

Immigrants, regardless of legal status, work in a variety of different jobs, and do not make up the majority of workers in any U.S. industry. Lawful immigrants are most likely to be in professional, management, or business and finance jobs (37%) or service jobs (22%). Unauthorized immigrants, by contrast, are most likely to be in service (32%) or construction jobs (16%).

Immigrants are also projected to drive future growth in the U.S. working-age population through at least 2035. As the Baby Boom generation heads into retirement, immigrants and their children are expected to offset a decline in the working-age population by adding about 18 million people of working age between 2015 and 2035.

How well do immigrants speak English?

Among immigrants ages 5 and older, half (51%) are proficient English speakers – either speaking English very well (35%) or only speaking English at home (16%).

Immigrants from Mexico have the lowest rates of English proficiency (31%), followed by Central Americans (33%) and immigrants from South and East Asia (54%). Those from Europe or Canada (76%), sub-Saharan Africa (75%), and the Middle East (61%) have the highest rates of English proficiency.

The longer immigrants have lived in the U.S., the greater the likelihood they are English proficient. Some 45% of immigrants living in the U.S. five years or less are proficient. By contrast, more than half (55%) of immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for 20 years or more are proficient English speakers.

Among immigrants ages 5 and older, Spanish is the most commonly spoken language. Some 44% of immigrants in the U.S. speak Spanish at home. The top five languages spoken at home among immigrants outside of Spanish are English only (16%), followed by Chinese (6%), Hindi (5%), Filipino/Tagalog (4%) and French (3%).

How many immigrants have been deported recently?

Around 344,000 immigrants were deported from the U.S. in fiscal 2016, slightly up since 2015. Overall, the Obama administration deported about 3 million immigrants between 2009 and 2016, a significantly higher number than the 2 million immigrants deported by the Bush administration between 2001 and 2008.

Immigrants convicted of a crime made up the minority of deportations in 2015, the most recent year for which statistics by criminal status are available. Of the 333,000 immigrants deported in 2015, some 42% had criminal convictions and 58% were not convicted of a crime. From 2001 to 2015, a majority (60%) of immigrants deported have not been convicted of a crime.

How many immigrants are apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border?

The number of apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border has sharply decreased over the past decade, from more than 1 million in fiscal 2006 to 408,870 in fiscal 2016. In the first two quarters of fiscal 2017, which started Oct. 1, there have been about 199,000 border patrol apprehensions at the Southwest border, compared with 186,000 for the same period in 2016. Today, more non-Mexicans than Mexicans are apprehended at the border. In fiscal 2016, the apprehensions of Central Americans at the border exceeded that of Mexicans for the second time on record.

How do Americans view immigrants and immigration?

While immigration has been at the forefront of a national political debate, the U.S. public holds a range of views about immigrants living in the country. Overall, a majority of Americans have positive views about immigrants. Six-in-ten Americans (63%) say immigrants strengthen the country “because of their hard work and talents,” while just over a quarter (27%) say immigrants burden the country by taking jobs, housing and health care.

Yet these views vary starkly by political affiliation. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 82% think immigrants strengthen the country with their hard work and talents, and just 13% say they are a burden. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, roughly as many (44%) say immigrants are a burden as say immigrants strengthen the country because of their hard work and talents (39%).

Americans also hold more positive views of some immigrant groups than others, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center immigration report. More than four-in-ten Americans expressed mostly positive views of Asian (47%) and European immigrants (44%), yet only a quarter expressed such views of African and Latin American immigrants (26% each). Roughly half of the U.S. public said immigrants are making things better through food, music and the arts (49%), but almost equal shares said immigrants are making crime and the economy worse (50% each).

Americans were divided on future levels of immigration. Nearly half said immigration to the U.S. should be decreased (49%), while one-third (34%) said immigration should be kept at its present level and just 15% said immigration should be increased.

Corrections: An earlier version of this post gave an incorrect figure for total deportations in fiscal year 2016. The text and its corresponding chart, “U.S. deportations of immigrants slightly up in 2016,” have been updated. Also, the chart “Mexico, China and India are top birthplaces for immigrants in the U.S.” has been updated to reflect the correct scale for figures. They are in millions. In addition, the note in a previous version of this chart incorrectly listed Mongolia as part of China.