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H-1B visa renewal: You can now renew US work visa without travelling to India. Here’s how
The US will introduce 'in-country' renewable H-1B visas, allowing Indian professionals to renew their work visas without traveling abroad. The move is part of a people-to-people initiative and comes ahead of a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Biden.
The United States authorities have announced that they will introduce ‘in-country’ renewable H-1B visas as part of the people-to-people initiative. The move is set to smoothen the process of H-1B visa renewal for several Indians who are working in the US on a H-1B visa.
The Indian professionals will now not have to travel overseas to renew their work visa. The announcement from the US visa office comes right ahead of the crucial bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington DC on Thursday.
What is H-1B visa?
The much-sought-after 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 H-1B visa, also dubbed work visa to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India.
H-1B visa renewal
Until 2004, certain categories of non-immigrant visas, particularly the H-1B, could be renewed or stamped inside the US.
After 2004, non-immigrant visas including the much sought after H-1B visa renewal included foreign tech workers having to go out of the country, mostly to their own country to get the H-1B extension stamped on their passport.
The H-1B visas are issued for three years at a time.
For all the H-1B visa holders, when their visa is renewed, they need to get their passports stamped with renewal dates. This is required if they wish to travel outside of the US and re-enter the US. As of now, H-1B visa restamping is not allowed within the US. Restamping can only be done at any US consulate.
This was a big inconvenience for foreign guest workers and also for their employees, particularly at a time when the visa wait time is more than 800 days or more than two years.
US visas for Indians
The United States last year issued 125,000 visas to Indian students, which is a record and they are on pace to become the largest foreign student community in the United States with a 20% increase last year alone, an official explained.
"The second thing that we're doing is the United States Department of State is going to launch a pilot to adjudicate domestic renewals of certain petition-based temporary work visas later this year, including for Indian nationals with the intent to implement this for an expanded pool of H-1 and L visa holders," a senior Biden administration official said.
The in-country renewal programme would be eventually broadened to include other eligible categories.-1
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Business NewsNewsWorldH-1B visa renewal: You can now renew US work visa without travelling to India. Here’s how
First Published:22 Jun 2023, 07:42 PM IST
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