Many Indians living and working in the US with the H1-B visa are unable to visit their parents as they are not getting timely appointments to get their passports stamped at US consulates in India.
People working with H1-B visas in the US need to get their passports stamped at US consulates in India to return to the US.
1/9 Indians in the US on a work visa can't go home. There’s NO appointments.The now ~200k H-1B Telegram group is growing by 13,000 per month.
Even with ~$40m in fees, the 5 VACs process ~10,000 a month. The next availability is ~2024!
Here’s 6 stories from hurting families: pic.twitter.com/FrUspRbsX9
— Deedy (@debarghya_das) September 24, 2022
A Twitter user, Debarghya Das, who is a founding engineer at Glean and who tweets about immigration in a tweet thread claimed that there is a H-1B Telegram group which has over 200,000 members and is growing by 13,000 members per month.
Those living there also pointed out that there is a lack of workforce in US consulates in India which is adding to the problems.
The slow pace has concerned Indians living there who have elderly parents living in India and in some cases their entire families. Some also highlight the long wait times family members have to endure to visit their children in the US.
Some have also pointed out that in the case of H-1B visas getting renewed in the US, why is it that they have to go to another country to get their visas stamped.
It also means that not only India, they cannot travel to any other country without getting their extension stamped.
3/9 An H-1B is valid for 3 years. When it expires, it's not just India, you can't travel abroad without getting an extension stamped. https://t.co/gqSKi696oO— Deedy (@debarghya_das) September 24, 2022
The Twitter user also highlighted stories of parents and family members who are also unable to travel to the US due to appointments of first-time visa holders being scheduled extending up to 2024.
The Twitter user also shared stories of individuals who are stuck in the US but cannot travel home fearing that they may lose their jobs if they remain in India longer than the desired period of time.
One individual was forced to send his daughter on an emergency visa as an unaccompanied minor since his wife’s H1-B visa expired and she also did not have Overseas Citizen Of India (OCI).
4 of nI am super proud of my brave girl but very disappointed with how little freedom Indian immigrants have even after 13 years of living and working in US
My son is the bravest boy to not only adapt to online classes but also doing it from half way across the world
— Now is the Time (@NowIsTheTime4It) May 6, 2021
“I am super proud of my brave girl but very disappointed with how little freedom Indian immigrants have even after 13 years of living and working in the US,’ the man, who tweets using @NowIsTheTime4It, said.
There are other online groups where people discuss the pain of staying away from loved ones. Some are worried about employment, others fear children missing school. For me, my 80-year-old father’s health is a constant worry. None of these qualify for emergency appointments.— Rahul Fernandes (@newspaperwallah) December 1, 2021
Another Twitter user, Rahul Fernandes who works for Facebook’s News Feed team in Menlo Park, California, said it is a frustrating experience to get locked out of the embassy portal if one tries ‘logging in more than four times a day’.
I’m sharing this because I believe this issue has not received the attention it deserves. Those of us who work in Silicon Valley building products and services that have helped the world through this pandemic, deserve to see our families.— Rahul Fernandes (@newspaperwallah) December 1, 2021
“Those of us who work in Silicon Valley building products and services that have helped the world through this pandemic, deserve to see our families,” he tweeted in 2021.
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