The Biden administration is reportedly slated to make it easier for Indian migrant workers to renew their visas as President Joe Biden meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Reuters first reported Wednesday.
A small number of workers from India, along with some amount from other countries, will be able to renew their H-1B visas without having to leave the United States first, Reuters reported. The program is planned to be a test drive that could potentially be expanded to more migrants in the coming years.
Exclusive: The Biden administration will make it easier for Indians to live and work in the United States, using this week’s state visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help some skilled workers enter or remain in the country https://t.co/Pt4zucR4Is
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 22, 2023
“The pilot would begin with a small number of cases with the intention to scale the initiative over the following one to two years,” a State Department spokesperson told Reuters.
The government allocates 65,000 H-1B visas to U.S. companies each year, which last for three years before they can be renewed. Another 20,000 visas are made available for workers without advanced degrees. Tech firms are the biggest users of H-1B visas, and 73% of the roughly 442,000 H-1B visa workers in the United States are Indian. (RELATED: Signal Failure Blamed For Rail Disaster That Killed 275, Injured Hundreds in India)
India has long expressed concern about the difficulty its citizens have getting work authorization in the United States, and the topic is expected to be part of discussions this week between Modi and Biden, along with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.