The United States welcomed immigrants and citizens from other countries. This year, the US appears to be on track to issue more than a million visas from India alone. These data show the close relationship between the two countries and how important roles inflows and outflows play in both economies.
Reasons for the Increase in Visa Grants There are several factors contributing to the expected increase in visas for Indian citizens in 2022:
Increasing demand for qualified IT professionals: US companies continue to expand their technology and systems businesses. This creates a large pool of skilled workers from the vast inventory available in India. Visa classes known as H-1B and L-1 meet this requirement.
Pandemic Assistance: The COVID-19 pandemic has halted visa processing worldwide. However, authorities took action to resolve the dispute. This has a positive impact on visa numbers.
Visa Lottery: Approximately 55,000 green cards are issued each year through the Immigrant Visa program. Most of these visas are issued to applicants from India, which increases the number.
Family Visas: People of Indian origin who settle in the USA can sponsor family members such as spouses, children and parents through various family visas. This plays an important role in the annual figures.
Bilateral Relations and Policies: Under successive governments, the two countries have strengthened cooperation in various sectors. Immigration and migration policies also support such commercial and military cooperation.
Green Card Visa through Family or Visa
Provides approved permanent residence based on the needs of different families or jobs.
Depending on the process, citizenship is obtained after fulfilling the residence conditions for 3-5 years.
Despite future challenges, numbers are expected to increase.
While immigration decisions increase this year, challenges continue:
The economy is not in good shape due to high inflation, but rising interest rates may affect employment in the future. This may limit future applications for certain visa categories. Strict scrutiny of H-1B visa applications and high rejection rates of “Buy American, Rent American” applications lead to unexpected results.
The crisis in the labor market will put pressure on participation in the F-1 visa process.
Backlogs and processing delays continue to be a problem, especially in the family and work-related Green Card categories and in countries with long wait times, such as India and China.
Policies such as increasing H-1B application fees and choosing wage levels increase compliance costs and discourage small businesses and employers from hiring foreign talent.
However, political experts believe that the foundations of US-India relations and people-to-people relations remain strong. Bilateral collaborations in the fields of technology, medicine and education are also increasing in solving problems such as epidemics and climate change, with an emphasis on STEM skills. This will take the annual number to over one million, despite problems with some visa categories. Moreover, India also needs knowledge and money, and Americans need talent. Helping policymakers stop visa travel would help both economies.
Hope Forward
For higher adoption in the future, stakeholders can consider the following options:
Lobby to increase the annual quota of the infamous H-1B quota. Modern boundaries were set in the past and need to be revised to suit today’s realities.
Fast processing on premium services for critical and time-sensitive roles such as nurses and software engineers to meet urgent needs.
Promote immigration reforms that provide hope and pathways to permanent residence for law-abiding undocumented immigrants, including those from Asia and Latin America.
Rather than forcing people to change employers regularly and obtain work visas such as H and L, consider expanding unemployment visas or traveler visas that encourage entrepreneurship.
Streamline border procedures and eliminate questionable rules in the post-pandemic non-immigrant sector visa category to facilitate and quickly eliminate travel.
Allow two applications for multiple visa types, such as H-1B, so applicants can apply for a green card without waiting in between. This increases choice and flexibility.
If the historical process of Indians receiving more than a million visas a year is effectively addressed, this process can continue and flourish in the post-Covid era, benefiting the economy and its people for decades to come. Immigrants continue to fuel America’s success by bringing global experience while meeting local workforce and skills needs. This partnership has stood the test of time and will continue to advance development worldwide.
