US: Lakhs of young-adult NRIs may face deportation

More than a million Indians are facing delays in getting a green card in the United States of America as not more than 9800 applications are approved on an annual basis due to a 7% capping placed per country. 

Many Non Resident Indians (NRIs) are hence dependent on the H-1B visas. This means that once their kids turn 21, they would not be covered by H-4 visas which are meant only for dependents. They would then have to apply for the F-1 visas which act as an impediment in the educational and career-wise growth of the individuals. An alternative for them would be to relocate to India which too would require effort in terms of re-adjusting to differences in culture and climate. 

David J. Bier, associate director of immigration studies with the Cato Institute carried out a full fledged research with respect to this issue. 

“The fact that Chinese and Indians dominate the backlog is the result of the country caps where green cards are not issued proportionally to the number of pending applicants in each country but rather limited arbitrarily at 7% per nation of birth.”

There have been efforts to do away with the 7% capping and to give leeway to those born and brought up in the U.S.A but they remain to be drafts.