Under the pilot program, Indian and other foreign workers on H-1B visas will not have to leave the US every time they need to get the visa renewed.
In-country renewable H-1B visas will be announced by the US during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first state visit, saving the trouble of having to leave the country each time the document needs to be renewed for Indian professionals, who receive the majority of such visas each year.
The non-immigrant H-1B visa, which is granted for three years at a time, enables US businesses to hire foreign nationals for specialised positions requiring theoretical or technical expertise. Every year, technology companies use it to hire thousands of workers from India and other nations.
This was a big hassle, particularly at a time when the wait time for some visas is over two years. Under the pilot program being planned by the US, some Indian and other foreign workers on H-1B visas will be able to renew those visas within the country, without having to travel abroad, said a Reuters report. The program may be expanded later.
Indians are by far the most active users of the US H-1B program and made up 73% of the nearly 4.42 lakh H-1B workers in the 2022 fiscal, the report said.
A senior Biden administration official was quoted in the PTI report as saying that the US Department of State will launch a pilot programme to judge domestic renewals of some petition-based temporary work visas later this year, including for Indian nationals, with the intention of implementing this for a larger pool of H-1 and L visa holders.
The official stated that the initiative would eventually be expanded to cover additional qualifying groups and that “it is good for people in India, good for people in the United States, and really good for our businesses.”
