In my previous post I had written about how the political left and right in the USA have united against Indian immigrants and made them subject to various racist attacks. In this post we will see how the Biden administration has waged war on Indian legal immigrants in USA.

I was surprised to know that there are two telegram groups each with 50K members from India who are coordinating to get visa stamping appointments in India at US consulates. Most of this stamping is dropbox which means there is no need for the person to actually visit the consulate. They have to visit a private company location where they give their biometrics and drop off their papers and wait for the passport to arrive by mail. The dark humor in this red tape is that while the visa is required to enter the USA, most of the people who seek this stamp are already inside the USA, their visa has been extended but they cannot get a stamp unless they step out of the USA.

This absurdity is a result of the Biden administration's policy to keep the consulates in India closed for most operations. India right now has very low Covid spread, most of the population is vaccinated and most other activities have resumed like before. Yet, USA has decided to keep the Indian consulates closed.

Now, is this something specific to India or is this the general incompetence of the Department of State? This is an India specific problem because far too many Indians are forced to stay on H1B visa even though most of them are already approved for their green cards. What is preventing them from getting their green cards is the racist per country caps in American immigration law.

The large number of individuals are seeking to renew H1B visa. Hence this is an artificial problem created by the racism against Indians in US Congress but decision to keep consulates closed is making it even more worse.

There are a number of executive actions the Biden administration could have passed to ensure that the people who want to leave the USA could leave and later enter back if they desire so. The visa stamping can be done for people who are already inside the USA, within the USA. Cato Institute’s blueprint for immigration reform had identified this problem last year itself and Cornell Law Prof. Stephen Yale-Loehr and identified this as a simple low hanging fruit for DHS.

Until 2004, nonimmigrants admitted with C, E, H, I, L, O, and P visas could get their temporary visas reissued when they expired by mailing their passports to the DOS main office in Washington, DC. DOS discontinued this policy in 2004 because Congress required U.S. visas to contain biometric identifiers, and DOS stated that it was “not feasible for the Department to collect the biometric identifiers in the United States” at that time.

In 2008, a DHS advisory committee recommended restarting the visa reissuance policy for the E, H, I, L, O, and P nonimmigrant visa categories and expanding it to include F and J nonimmigrants, noting that “numerous options exist for taking fingerprints domestically” if necessary and arguing that a “convincing business and security case has not been made for the continued suspension. “

It is not a surprise that Trump administration would not take these steps. But Biden administration surely had enough political backing to do this very simple basic reform that would have freed time for Consulates to do a better job than simply doing dumb paperwork for the same person they approved a couple of years ago.

USCIS delays are hurting American businesses and Indian immigrants alike.

Now I have absolutely dreaded dealing with many government agencies in India. However, the American federal agency called USCIS is so inefficient that compared to them even the Indian court system would appear ultra-efficient.

A typical H1B visa is valid for 3 years. USCIS however takes around 1 year to approve if all starts align. More if they don’t. H4 is a visa that is given to spouses of H1B holders. Once H1B is approved and H4 applicant is confirmed to be the spouse there is no other scrutiny involved. For the visa officer it takes 12 minutes to approve an H4 visa. However, the Donald Trump administration decided to break this system. They insisted that H1B and H4 applications must be processed separately. As a result, once H1B is approved H4 application goes back on the queue. This means if H1B approval takes 1 years for approval, the H4 process might take another 1 year or so. H4 Spouses have to apply for EAD which takes even longer to arrive.

During this process none of the applicants can travel abroad. If the H4 EAD does not arrive in time, the person has to quit their job. If they are self-employed they have to shut down the business. It is estimated that 30,000 Indian immigrants in the USA are forced to quit their jobs each year due to the inefficiency of USCIS.

USA is facing a massive labor shortage across all sectors. Covid has already hurt many businesses. During such critical times USCIS delays are forcing qualified immigrants out of jobs, which imposes a cost on businesses. This is extremely damaging for the American economy.

Biden Administration's refusal to use its powers to take even basic steps to solve these problems have raised eyebrows across the Indian immigrant community. It appears that this inaction that has reduced an entire Federal agency to the butt of jokes, jeopardised consulate operations abroad can perhaps be seen as the administration deliberate hostility against Indian immigrants.

Image source: Foreign Policy