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NORTH AMERICAN Newsline DECEMBER 15, 2023 | The Indian Eye 18

US plan to launch work visas in December

likely to benefit the Indians most

The plan, which was mentioned in the joint statement and announced by PM Modi during his address to the
Indian diaspora at the Ronald Reagan Centre, has been cheered and welcomed by the Indian community in the US

OUR BUREAU visa appointment to get their visa re-
newed. It will allow our missions in In-
Washington, DC/New Delhi
dia to concentrate on new applicants,”
he US is set to begin a pilot pro- Ms Stufft said.
gram for domestic renewal of The plan, which was mentioned
Tcertain categories of H-1B visas in the joint statement and announced
in December. According to a US offi- by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
cial, this step will benefit a significant- during his address to the Indian dias-
ly large number of Indian technology pora at the Ronald Reagan Centre,
professionals.Julie Stufft, Deputy has been cheered and welcomed by
Assistant Secretary of State for Visa the Indian community in the US.
Services, said, “In India, the demand Ms Stufft said there will be a fed-
(for US visas) is still very high. The eral register notice, which is the first
wait time of 6, 8, and 12 months is not official notice of this coming out very
what we need and (it is) not indicative soon, and that will describe all of the
of how we view India.” steps that need to be taken and who
Over a period of three months, Over a period of three months, beginning December, the State Department will be issuing is eligible to apply in the first tranche
beginning December, the State De- and lay out those instructions.
partment will be issuing 20,000 visas 20,000 visas to foreign nationals who are already inside the country “But I can say that we are doing
to foreign nationals who are already these visas here in the United States.
inside the country. focused very much on India. We are “Because Indians are the largest So, the idea is for a visa to be mailed
“We want to make sure that In- piloting that,” she said. skilled group of workers in the United from the United States to us in Wash-
dian travellers can get appointments “We will do 20,000 in the first States, we hope that India will benefit ington. We print the visa and process
as quickly as possible. One way we group. The vast majority of those will quite a bit from this programme and the visa, put it in the passport and
are doing that is through the domes- be Indian nationals living in the US it will prevent people from having to send it back to someone in the United
tic visa renewal program, which is and we will expand as it goes on. travel back to India or anywhere for a States,” she said.

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