Children of H-1B visa holders from India may have to leave US

Children of skilled workers from India, who are holders of H-1B Visas, referred to as ‘H4 Dreamers’, may also be asked to leave the United States. They were named so because they accompanied their parents on H-4, or dependent visas, to the US.

But when they turn 21 and if their parents, who are H-1B visa holders, do not become its citizens or permanent residents, their dependent children would have to leave the country.

Compounding this situation is the 70-year wait for Indians applying for immigrant visa status, as this country has the largest number of qualified applicants.

The Columbus Dispatch quotes the Department of Homeland Security’s 2017 annual report as revealing that Indian nationals have to wait for the longest time than other country’s citizens because around 370,000 from this country have applied for immigrant visas, out of which fewer than 10,000 are accepted per annum.

For instance, Shrivatsan, a 12-year-old resident of Columbus, nicknamed Shri, was told that he could never ever become a US Citizen and would also have to leave the US when he turns 21.

Shri said that when he heard this news, he was disappointed as he really wanted to stay back in the US. He presumed that he could live in America as long he wanted to and could work for the NASA when he grows up and was hoping to attend college without paying the entire fees. That may not be possible now.

The new legislation would now abolish a current ceiling on immigrant visas of seven percent per nation each year. The USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) said that the total number of immigrant visa based on employment per annum is 140,000.

Moreover, the visas that certain countries do not use cannot be allocated to India or other countries, which have massive backlogs.

A spokesman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs said that any visas that have not been used would now be granted to countries that do not meet the seven percent ceiling.

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