Green Card Row: Children On The Verge Of Missing Families?

Moving to the United States and obtaining a green card there has been the dream of many Indians and there is no doubt about it. However, things are not going well for Indians as far as the US dream is concerned raising many concerns. Recently we have seen how Indians were deported citing few irregularities.

The immigration authorities there found a few lapses in the documents that were submitted to the embassy and hence they were deported back. Around two dozen Indians were deported in a single incident. Now Indians have one more thing to worry about.

Media reports are abuzz that more than 10 lakh people are awaiting the issuance of the green cards. In total, the waiting period of the cards is more than 100 years and by the time their token numbers come most of them would be no more which is very concerning.

It is known that the US Administration processes only 1.4 lakh green cards every year for the employment segment. On top of that, there is a cap on the green cards that are allocated to various nations which resulted in the waiting period becoming high

India has been a major contributor of workforce and skilled people go there on a H-1B visa. As per a recent study conducted on the immigration issues, it wa found that more than 10 lakh applications are yet to be processed. If the visas are not processed then their children would be in a big danger.

Children of H-1B visa holders has the facility to reside in the US under H-4 Visas. However there are certain rules and regulations that come under this. Children can live there till 21 years and after attaining the age they no longer are eligible to live there.

Those who reach the age are dubbed as documented dreamers. Either they have to obtain F-1 Student visa or go back to their native countries. Under the visa they have a few restrictions on working hours. This is a big blow for them as they cannot make the ends meet with the limited money they make.

As they cannot make it upto required money for the expenses, they might be deported back. Having brought up there for certain years, it would be tough for them to move back to their native countries and live their rest of their lives.

Another big concern is that the children might be seperate from their parents due to the visa rules. The family system has a big role to play for Indians no matter where they live.

On the other hand, experts say that the bill which was proposed to make a few changes to the visa allotment system and remove the cap on the yearly visas and speed up the process might improve the situation partially.