E-Paper
H-1B workers stuck in India as consulates abruptly cancel US visa renewal appointments
H-1B visa: The rescheduled appointments were linked to the US’s new visa-vetting policy, under which agencies screen an applicant’s social media history.
Hundreds of Indian H-1B visa holders who returned to the country to renew their work permits this December are stranded in India after US consular offices abruptly cancelled their appointments, giving them fresh dates only months later, delays that prompted Google to advise some employees to avoid international travel over the “risk of an extended stay”.
The Washington Post said “hundreds, possibly thousands” of Indians are believed to have been affected by the unannounced move for the appointments between December 15 and 26.
Google’s memo comes amid the chaos. The search giant hires around 1,000 H-1B visa workers a year.
HT has reported that the rescheduled appointments were linked to the US’s new visa-vetting policy, under which agencies screen an applicant’s social media history. US authorities have said the new “online presence reviews” have been put into place to screen applicants who may pose a national security risk to the United States.
This is the latest in a raft of controversies that have weighed down and cast a shadow on the H-1B programme – once a cornerstone of the US’s immigration policy that allowed highly-skilled people to work and live in the country. Indians account for over 70% of H-1B visas. However, US President Donald Trump and a clutch of his allies have pushed back against the programme in what is a larger anti-immigrant policy-shift.
Trump in September slapped a $100,000 fee on new H-1B applications.
An immigration lawyer quoted by the Post said the cancellations were “the biggest mess we have seen”. The email, sent by the company’s outside counsel BAL Immigration Law on Thursday, warned staff who need a visa stamp to re-enter the United States not to leave the country because visa processing times have lengthened, the report said. Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. In September, Alphabet had advised its employees to avoid international travel and urged H-1B visa holders to remain in the US, according to an email seen by Reuters.
