Rejection of Visas to Indians Increases in U.S

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 16 February 2012, 21:05 IST   |    2 Comments
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Bangalore: The U.S. has shown discrimination against Indians by declining professional visas over the last four years, especially during the time of Obama administration, reveals a recent study.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services data was made use of in the study to explain the refusal in the visa categories, L-1 and H-1B. Indians were the ones most affected due to the rejection.

"Data indicate much of the increase in denials involves Indian-born professionals and researchers," said the National Foundation for American Policy in the study, reports Hindustan Times.

The Indian industry as well as the IT companies based in U.S., who employ people from India, has raised voice against the injustice done to Indians, but the U.S. authorities denied it. This problem was raised previous year at the CII meetings held at the White House, U.S. state department and on the Capitol Hill, which is home to the U.S. federal legislature.

It seems like this report revealed by the study isn’t very surprising to the Indians as they have been aware of this discrimination for the past many years. And after the new findings U.S. is finding it more difficult to deny this fact.

"Country-specific data on new L-1B petitions (for inter-company transfer to the US) indicate US Citizenship and Immigration Services is more likely to deny a petition from an Indian-born professional than nationals of other countries," said the report.

L-1B rejection for India till 2008 was 2.8 percent, which was the same as those of countries such as China, Japan and Germany. In the year 2009, when Obama took charge as the president the rates changed and the previous year it shot up to 22.5 percent. Rejection rate of other countries also rose, but it stayed within 4.1 percent-5.9 percent range.