Two Indian-origin men have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston for allegedly staging armed robberies to commit visa fraud in the US state of Massachusetts. Rambhai Patel, 36, and Balwinder Singh, 39, from New York staged armed robberies so that “victims” could apply for immigration benefits in exchange for thousands of dollars.
An Indian American man in Florida has pleaded guilty to procuring citizenship unlawfully, misusing evidence of naturalisation, and making false statements in a passport application. Jaiprakash Gulvady, 51, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison, a release by the US Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida, announced last week. According to court records, Gulvady, an Indian national, came to the US in 2001 on a temporary business visa.
The US government has announced a new policy that will allow the imposition of visa restrictions on individuals involved in the misuse of commercial spyware. The misuse of commercial spyware has been linked to arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the most egregious of cases. Additionally, the misuse of these tools presents a security and counter-intelligence threat to US personnel, the State Department said in a statement.
Canada’s decision to double the amount of money that international students need to show to get a study visa will impact students from India the most as they make up about 40 per cent of all international students in the north American country. To get a study visa to Canada, a student currently needs to show $10,000 in his or her account for covering the initial cost of living.
In a move likely to benefit Indian professionals, 20,000 H1B specialty occupation workers will be able to renew their visas in the US beginning from January next year, according to State Department officials. This development comes months after the White House announced a pilot program for domestic renewal of certain categories of H-1B visas during the state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June this year.
Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said that visa processing in India will be “inevitably impacted” after Ottawa evacuated 41 of its diplomats following a diplomatic spat with New Delhi over the killing of pro-Khalistani hardliner Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Uber Technologies, Inc. has appointed an Indian American as its Chief Financial Officer. The new CFO will will join the company on November 13, 2023.
A New Jersey-based IT firm will have to pay $25,500 in civil penalties to the US for posting discriminatory job advertisements and seeking job applications only from India. Infosoft Solutions Inc, an IT recruiting and contracting company operating as KForce Tech LLC, violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by posting six discriminatory job advertisements between July 2021 and August 2021.
A group of US lawmakers, including Indian American Congressmen Raja Krishnamoorthi and Ami Bera, have reintroduced a bipartisan legislation to protect children of-long-term visa holders from aging out when they turn 21, forcing them to self-deport.
The US will begin processing student visa applications for the Fall session with the first batch of appointments available from mid-May. “Attention students! In mid-May, the US Mission to India will open the first batch of appointments for the upcoming student visa season,” the US Consulate General in Hyderabad announced via a tweet.
The US has received a sufficient number of applications to meet the congressionally-mandated H-2B cap for the second half of fiscal year 2023, the country’s federal agency for immigration services announced.
When Nancy Jackson[Above right], the deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, came with a women’s team to Silicon Valley, she came bearing gifts for immigrants.
She told members of the press and later during the closed-door Round Table dinner with the Indian American community that H-1B, and L-1B visa holders can renew their visas in the U.S. instead of traveling back to the designated country, and that students can apply for visas immediately after getting accepted by a U.S.-based university.
US visa officials have reiterated that India is its number one priority for reducing visa delays. The US has stated that it had issued 36 percent more visas to Indians so far this year than in pre-Covid-19 pandemic times.
With 226,450 students, India has become the top source of new international students entering Canada in 2022, according to data released by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
In a big win for immigration, earlier this week, the US administration announced a policy manual change under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) to protect certain non-citizen children (called Dreamers, after the Dream Act), including Indians, from losing eligibility to obtain lawful permanent resident status.
Amid the gloom of tech sector layoffs in the US, a new legal settlement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) holds hope for the thousands of skilled immigrants that make their way to this country each year – there will be significant reduction in visa processing times for spouses of H-1B and L1 visa holders.
In a concerted campaign, Indian origin tech sector employees and their lawyers have been lobbying with the US government to increase the grace period from 60 days to 180. Under current rules, if H-1B or an L1 visa holders find themselves out of a job, they have to find an employer who is willing to sponsor them within 60 days, or they are sent back to their home country within 10 days after the grace period ends.
Ritu Jha- The federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program guidelines for international students will remain hybrid for the Spring 2021 semester, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday. Nonimmigrant F visa and M visa students actively enrolled at a U.S. school on March 9, 2020, who subsequently took courses online while outside the country […]
Ritu Jha- It was a huge sigh of relief for International students in the US on learning the Trump administration has agreed to take back the blunt and erratic policy announced July 6, which asked the international students to either take on-campus classes or leave the country. The policy outraged not just the students but […]
Industry leaders feared the order would drive the best and the brightest away from America.
RITU JHA- President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday extending his April freeze on H-1B and other visas through the end of 2020, curtailing a source of foreign professionals for tech companies and universities, according to published reports. Visa holders in the U.S. and applicants who’ve already received visas are exempt from the ban, […]
Some requirements of additional documentation for H-1B visas to go.
Ritu Jha- Four Republican US senators have written a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to suspend certain employment-based immigration permits for at least the next year and all new guest worker visas for 60 days, or until unemployment has returned to “normal levels,” The letter, sent May 7 and signed by Sens. Tom […]
