Visa Woes Forcing Desi Spouses To Go Back Home

The initial stretch of April has brought a difficult time for many immigrants after the announcement of revoking of the special work permits for the spouses of skilled workers was made by the Trump administration. More and more dependent wives feel that their professional lives are now doomed in this land of opportunity. 

Just when skilled immigrant workers and their working spouses were settling down post the Obama era, the Trump government decided to rescind the policy so that more and more Americans could get jobs, rather than people from other nationalities. 

The implication of this announcement has led to a huge number of (for the most part) Indian women who followed their spouses to the United States, to surrender their employment, regardless their sought-after skill set or high level of education. This change will most likely be enforced from June 2018. 

A large number of Indian families across the United States are in a tight spot due to this situation as most applicants under the H-1B visa program are the dependent spouses. But there have been a large number of American IT companies, which are recruiting immigrant software engineers and computer programmers, as they are unable to find the required skill set within American nationals. 

The Federal Government was so swamped with requests for H1-B visas, that they literally stopped accepting them for a while. There are a number of organizations which invite Indians on a temporary visa but later sponsors them for full-time employment in the United States. This brings the lives of all their family members to a standstill as in most of the cases the Green Cards are approved but not issued. This is a terrible dilemma to be in. 

The visa woes of Desis has just taken on a new edge, and in the coming days, we will be seeing many estranged families living on different continents because America refuses to allow them living space.