Us Immigration

US senators propose bill to reunite families, raise immigration cap

Two Democratic Party Senators on Wednesday introduced a legislation aimed at reuniting the immigrant families and raising the per-country family-based immigration caps, allowing more visas to go to a single country such as India and China. Introduced by Senators Mazie K. Hirono, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Tammy Duckworth introduced the Reuniting Families Act, which would promote family unity in the country's immigration system, reduce the family-based immigration backlogs, and update laws to reflect how families immigrate to the US. The bill also includes Senator Hirono's Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act, legislation that would speed up the visa process for children of Filipino World War II veterans. As the only immigrant currently serving in the US Senate, I am proud to introduce the Reuniting Families Act to update our country's family immigration system and promote family unity, said Hirono. By implementing changes to reduce the backlog of ...

H-1B visa cap for 2025 reached: What applicants should look out for now

USCIS will notify applicants about their selection status through their online accounts

Trump wins: From CIA to immigration, roles Ramaswamy, Kash Patel may clinch

With Donald Trump winning the 2024 US presidential election after beating Kamala Harris, Americans of Indian descent like Vivek Ramaswamy, Kash Patel, and Bobby Jindal could clinch top US govt roles

US green card: Indian techies face long wait, Musk claims Trump will 'fix'

"Getting a green card isn't a right; it's a privilege, determined by yearly quotas," says Ajay Sharma

US has broken immigration system that needs to be repaired: Kamala Harris

The United States has a broken immigration system that needs to be repaired, Vice President Kamala Harris said on Wednesday in a rare interview with the Republican-leaning news channel during which she sparred with its popular host. The point is that we have a broken immigration system that needs to be repaired,' Harris told Fox News anchor Bret Baier in a rare sit-down with the news channel. So, your Homeland Security Secretary said that 85 per cent of apprehensions, Baier interjected. I'm not finished. We have an immigration system, Harris tried to continue with her answer. It's a rough estimate that 6 million people have been released into the country, the Fox News anchor interrupted again. And let me just finish. I'll get to the question. I promise you. I was beginning to answer, the vice president pleaded. When you came into office, your administration immediately reversed a number of Trump border policies. Most significantly, the policy that required illegal immigrants to b

Florida hospitals question immigrants' legal status, Texas plans to follow

For three days, the staff of an Orlando medical clinic encouraged a woman with abdominal pain who called the triage line to go to the hospital. She resisted, scared of a 2023 Florida law that required hospitals to ask whether a patient was in the U.S. with legal permission. The clinic had worked hard to explain the limits of the law, which was part of Gov. Ron DeSantis' sweeping package of tighter immigration policies. The clinic posted signs and counseled patients: They could decline to answer the question and still receive care. Individual, identifying information wouldn't be reported to the state. We tried to explain this again and again and again, but the fear was real, Grace Medical Home CEO Stephanie Garris said, adding the woman finally did go to an emergency room for treatment. Texas will be the next to try a similar law for hospitals enrolled in state health plans, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. It takes effect Nov. 1 just before the end of a ...

Trump proposes green cards for foreign students graduating from US colleges

Former US President Donald Trump made a departure from his anti-immigration stance and proposed handing out green cards to all foreign students who graduate from US colleges

Indian Americans should run for office at all levels: Raja Krishnamoorthi

It's time for Indian Americans to run for office at all levels and never miss to vote, influential Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi told community members gathered here from across the country. We have to vote. Will everyone here vote in that coming election? Because we can talk politics all day, but doing politics is what matters. Remember, politics is not just a noun, it's a verb. And we have to do politics this year. We have to vote, Krishnamoorthi told a room full of eminent Indian Americans who had gathered in the American Capital for the annual summit of Indian American Impact, a Democratic think-tank. Secondly, we have to work on political causes bigger than ourselves. We have to support our local mandirs. We have to support our local mosques. We have to support our local not-for-profits. I hope you do that and you give generously. But we also have to work on political issues bigger than ourselves, said the Indian American Congressman, who represents the suburb of Chicago in th

Despite being country of immigrants, US immigration system broken: Thanedar

Indian-American Congressman Shri Thanedar said Tuesday that the US has a broken immigration system and should be replaced by an orderly process that benefits the US, its economy and helps create American jobs. America is a nation of immigrants and yet we have a broken immigration system, Thanedar said during a Congressional hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee on the Fiscal Year 2025 Department of Homeland Security Budget Request. In 1979, growing up in poverty, I was fortunate to have gotten admission into a PhD program in the United States to study. And that would have changed my life. And I went to the American embassy in Mumbai. Got there at 5 am in the morning, stood in line, only to be denied my student visa, he said. The embassy continued to deny it four more times. The fifth time, the visa got approved, only because the denying officer was on vacation to the United States. You know, our H-1B visas are an issue. Our immigration -- country quotas are creating such

Resolution tabled in US Cong condemning attacks on Hindu places of worship

Celebrating the contributions of Hindus and Hinduism to the US, a prominent Indian-American Congressman has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives condemning Hinduphobia, anti-Hindu bigotry, hate and intolerance. The resolution that was introduced by Congressman Shri Thanedar on Wednesday has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. The resolution reads that despite their positive contributions to the United States, Hindu Americans face stereotypes and disinformation about their heritage and symbols, and have been the targets of bullying in schools and on college campuses, as well as discrimination, hate speech, and bias-motivated crimes. According to the FBI's Hate Crimes Statistics Report, anti-Hindu hate crimes targeting mandirs and persons are annually on the rise while in parallel Hinduphobia in American society is unfortunately rising, the resolution said. Noting that the United States has welcomed more than four million Hindus f

US immigration adds 'third gender' option on citizenship forms

Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi advises Indian students in US to be 'watchful'

Nooyi advised Indian students to respect local laws and not engage in drugs or excessive drinking

Programme that allows 30K migrants from 4 nations into US each month upheld

A federal judge in Texas on Friday upheld a key piece of President Joe Biden's immigration policy that allows a limited number of migrants from four countries to enter the U.S. on humanitarian grounds, dismissing a challenge from Republican-led states that said the program created an economic burden on them. U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton ruled in favor of the humanitarian parole program that allows up to 30,000 asylum-seekers into the U.S. each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela combined. Eliminating the program would undercut a broader policy that seeks to encourage migrants to use the Biden administration's preferred pathways into the U.S. or face stiff consequences. Texas and 20 other states that sued argued the program is forcing them to spend millions on health care, education, and public safety for the migrants. An attorney working with the Texas attorney general's office in the legal challenge said that the program created a shadow immigration ...

Over 8,5000 migrants died worldwide, highest since UN started counting

A total of 8,565 migrants died on land and sea routes worldwide last year, the U.N. migration agency said Wednesday, a record high since it began counting deaths a decade ago. The International Organization for Migration said the biggest increase in deaths last year was on the treacherous Mediterranean Sea crossing, to 3,129 from 2,411 in 2022. However, that was well below the record 5,136 deaths recorded on the Mediterranean in 2016 as huge numbers of Syrians, Afghans and others fled conflicts toward Europe. IOM said the total number of deaths among migrants in 2023 was nearly 20% more than the previous year. It said most of the deaths last year, about 3,700, came from drowning. The count also includes migrants who vanished often while trying to cross by sea and are presumed dead even if their bodies were not found. The Geneva-based migration agency cautioned that the figures likely underestimate the real toll, and factors such as improved data collection methods play a part in

Surge in immigration to boost US GDP by $7 trn over decade, says CBO

The agency's estimates come amid a fierce political debate in Washington over the surge of migration at the US-Mexico border and what should be done to control it

Spouses, kids of H1-B visa holders to get automatic work authorisation

In a huge relief for H-1B visa holders, a White House-backed bipartisan deal has been unveiled under which automatic work authorisation would be granted to about 100,000 H-4 visa holders, who are spouses and children of a certain category of H-1B visa holders. The National Security Agreement that was announced on Sunday after long negotiations between the Republican and the Democratic leadership in the US Senate also provides a solution to about 250,000 aged-out children of H-1B visa holders. The move comes as good news for hundreds and thousands of Indian technology professionals who are waiting in a painstakingly long wait for a Green Card, in the absence of which their spouses cannot work and their aged-out children face the threat of deportation. 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. The per-country caps are numerical limits on t

US announces overhaul of its annual lottery for H-1B visas to reduce fraud

The US has announced a major overhaul of its annual lottery for the H-1B speciality occupation visas, popular among Indian IT professionals, to curtail the potential for fraud and improve and streamline the registration system. Separately, the US on January 29 has formally launched a pilot programme to renew the much sought-after H-1B visas domestically, a move that is likely to benefit thousands of Indian tech professionals. 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. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. The new overhauled system, among other things, includes the provision of a beneficiary-centric selection process for registrations by employers. As a result, unlike in the past when multiple applications by an individual often resulted in abuse in fraud of the system, the H-1B vis

Immigrants wait 10 years in US just for a court date, system overwhelmed

US immigration offices have become so overwhelmed with processing migrants for court that some some asylum-seekers who crossed the border at Mexico may be waiting a decade before they even get a date to see a judge. The backlog stems from a change made two months after President Joe Biden took office, when Border Patrol agents began now-defunct practice of quickly releasing immigrants on parole. They were given instructions to report to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office at their final destination to be processed for court work previously done by the Border Patrol. The change prevented the kind of massive overcrowding of holding cells in 2019, when some migrants stood on toilets for room to breathe. But the cost became evident as ICE officers tasked with issuing court papers couldn't keep pace. Offices in some cities are now telling migrants to come back years from now, and the extra work has strained ICE's capacity for its traditional work of enforcing immigration .

US to start premium processing of work permits for certain intl students

The United States on Monday announced premium processing of work authorisation applications for certain categories of international students, which is likely to benefit a large number of Indian students who come to study in the US in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the premium processing of applications for OPT (optional practical training) from international students in the STEM field or its extension. The premium processing begins March 6, a media release said, adding that for some other categories, it would begin from April 3. "The availability of premium processing for certain F-1 students, in addition to the ease of online filing, will streamline the immigration experience for a great many international students," said USCIS Director Ur M Jaddou. "The ongoing expansion of online filing is a priority for USCIS as we continue to create operational efficiencies and increase access to the .

H-1B, EB-5 visa application fees to shoot up under proposed USCIS rule

H-1B visa petitioners would also need to pay $215 in pre-registration fees, up from the current $10 fee