US govt urged to halt H1-B visa issuance to Indians till cap on Green Card is removed

An influential immigration rights advocacy group has called on US President Joe Biden to stop issuing new H1-B Visas to Indian nationals until the "discriminatory" cap on lawful permanent residency or Green Cards is removed. This comes in response to the Biden administration's decision to allow employers of H-1B visa holders to begin registering online for the H1-B Visa lottery, starting March 9, 2021. Immigration Voice urged the US government to stop issuing new H-1B visas to Indian nationals until the arbitrary cap on the number of Indians who can receive lawful permanent residency is removed because it has created a backlog of over 1 million people waiting for Green Cards with a wait time of 195 years. 

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"In fiscal year 2030, the line is expected to grow to 436 years. A majority of the Green Card backlog consists of women and children, who will eventually die in these backlogs. It means that if Vice-President Kamala Harris’ mother had come to the United States today, under such a system, she would never have gotten a Green Card in her lifetime. The course of Shyamala Gopalan’s daughter’s life would have been entirely different if she had been preoccupied with her mother’s possible deportation, as opposed to living her life as an American," Immigration Voice President Aman Kapoor said in a press release. 

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'100% Indian Exclusion Act'

Immigration Voice argued that the cap on Green Cards is targetted against Indian nationals, calling it a "100% Indian Exclusion Act". The group said that the rule implies a de facto ban on employment-based Green Cards for any new Indian national entering the United States on an H-1B visa.

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H1-B visas are issued to highly-skilled workers, mostly in the tech sector, who ultimately dream of receiving lawful permanent residency in the United States. Indians constitute the largest number of beneficiaries of H-1B visas in the US with each year approximately 70% or 60,000 of the total visas issued to Indian nationals, who enter the United States with their spouses and minor children. Last month, the previous administration amended the H-1B visa regime, giving priority to high wage and experienced workers of Level 4 category. This means the visas would be first awarded to individuals sponsored by US companies in Level 4, which is the highest of the four wage categories and covers very experienced workers.

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