US fastracks domestic visa process, 20,000 H1B applicants to get stamped in Jan 2024, ‘India will benefit quite a bit’
A limited number of H-1B specialty occupation workers in the US will be allowed to renew their visas in January, according to State Department officials.
The rollout of the H-1B domestic visa renewal pilot will only be limited to 20,000 participants initially. These applicants will just have to mail their visas to the State Department, and will not be allowed to travel outside the US.
“We really need to get proof of concept that it works before we can extend it to a larger group,” Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Julie Stufft told reporters, according to Bloomberg Law. “This is a huge change for folks who live here and previously would have had to leave the United States.”
The selection process for the first 20,000 candidates has not been detailed yet. More details are expected to be published next month by the department.
The stateside visa renewal pilot program is one of multiple measures the State Department is looking to add or continue with the aim of driving down wait times for travel to the US, officials told reporters Monday.
“We really need to get proof of concept that it works before we can extend it to a larger group,” Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Julie Stufft told reporters Monday. “This is a huge change for folks who live here and previously would have had to leave the United States.”
Will the step benefit Indians?
The White House announced the plan during the state visit of Narendra Modi in June. The step is also expected to benefit a massive number of Indian technology professionals.
The State Department had reportedly been working on launching this programme on a pilot basis for a while. However, it was only formally announced during Modi’s visit.
“We will do 20,000 in the first group. The vast majority of those will be Indian nationals living in the US and we will expand as it goes on,” Stufft said.
She added, “Because Indians are the largest skilled group of workers in the United States, we hope that India will benefit quite a bit from this programme and it will prevent people from having to travel back to India or anywhere for a visa appointment to get their visa renewed. It will allow our missions in India to concentrate on new applicants.”
A ‘huge undertaking’
Stufft also noted that the visa renewal programme is only for work visas. “This is an existing regulation that was allowed that we just have not used in about 20 years. These are work visas. It is intended for people who are living long-term in the US but want to renew their visa without going back overseas,” she said.
“We’re very excited about it. We’re starting small with a pilot of 20,000 cases in December, January and February and we look forward to opening that to more categories of workers living in the United States in the rest of 2024,” she added, calling the programme a “huge undertaking.”
The State Department was also appreciated by the National Immigration Forum “for taking these commonsense steps to make visa processing more efficient,” NIF President and CEO Jennie Murray said. “Doing so will help American businesses as well as visa holders and applicants,” she said.