Dream, no more

Trump’s immigration policy not only is keeping Indians from moving to the US, but also has had a traumatic effect on immigrants already there

- LAVINA MELWANI/NEW YORK

Once upon a time, Yogesh, a vibrant young dreamer set out for the US on an H-1B visa with his wife and child. Now, 10 years later, he is still on the waiting line for an elusive green card. Immigration has increasingly become a waiting game, and a numbers game. The sheer math of it all is overwhelming.

There are thousands of Yogeshs waiting for their number and in Trump’s America, it may never come. “If you were born in India and you are being sponsored for a green card today, the wait time can range anywhere from 50 years to 150 years,” says Cyrus Mehta, an immigration lawyer who heads Cyrus Mehta & Partners in New York. “In terms of H-1B being denied, earlier the denial rate was 6 per cent, but in the third quarter of 2019 fiscal year it rose to 24 per cent for initial employment and 12 per cent for continuing employment.”

He points out that now when you apply for an extension of an H-1B visa, there is a risk that the case might not get approved. “What the Trump administration has done is to heighten scrutiny on the H-1B visas of qualified skilled applicants,” says Mehta. “Each time they apply for an extension, there is a risk of being denied. They have been waiting years for the green card and there is now more uncertainty.”

He cites the case of Arjun who had travelled to India to meet his parents after 10 years. He has not yet been able to return to the US because of extreme vetting. Says Mehta: “The counsellors have just held up the application for weeks and I hope this does not keep on extending, as he could be in jeopardy of losing his job.”