Amidst the immigration crack of US President Donald Trump, more than one lakh children of Indian H1-B visa holders in the United States are allegedly facing the risk of self-exile from the US. These individuals moved to America with their NRI parents on dependent visa, who will end up as 21 years old.
So far, American immigration policies have allowed such children to choose a new visa status after ‘aging’, but a group of rules change under Trump administration and some recent court cases have left them anxious about the possibility of provision.
There are about 1.34 lakh Indian children in the US, who expect their families to be out of the condition of dependent visa before receiving the green card, the Times of India (Toi) described the data since March 2023. Dependent children of H -1B visa holders may be transferred to the US under the H -4 visa program. But as soon as they turn 21, this provision ends.
Dacoity ruling
Recently, a federal appeal court announced a deferred action for the childhood arrival (DACA) immigration policy-which provides temporary two-year security to the immigrants unintended from exile-as a traditional children.
Without this provision, the future of such Indian youth seems to be a shadow of doubt. Adding the problem is the fact that the parents of many of these children have applied for the green card with a waiting period between 12 years and 100 years.
Green card backlog
Meanwhile, there is no sign in the queue for the green card. According to an Economic Times report, currently 10.7 lakh Indians are caught in the Green -Card Backlog (EB -2 and EB -3 categories), which will take 134 years to process.
Without DACA’s safety, dependent children who are in the green card waiting list, fear that they may have to be self-attempted before receiving American residence.
“Our waiting period is 23 years, and I am getting 21 years old on this October. Earlier, people will get two years of expansion under DACA and they can study, work and get social security numbers. But new villages come to power and ban congenital citizenship, everything is going to confuse,” said a Texas-based student said.
