Trump visa order splits Indian families
Applications for H-1B and other high-skilled work visas suspended from abroad
The March day that his father died, Karan Murgai boarded a plane to India. The coronavirus was spreading, so Murgai’s wife and their two children stayed home in Dallas. Their separation — due to last three weeks — became indefinite after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that suspends applications for H-1B and other highskilled work visas from abroad.
Murgai and at least 1,000 others like him, whose American visas are tied to their jobs in the US, are now stranded in India — the order’s “collateral damage”, he said.
Murgai handles his father’s affairs in New Delhi during the day and his US job overnight, worrying about his 4-year-old daughter who has lost her appetite and started throwing fits.
The H-1B visa programme allows US employers to hire highskilled foreign workers, mainly for tech jobs. Employers first have to determine there are no
American candidates, and then undertake a lengthy sponsorship process that costs as much as $15,000. Indians account for 75 per cent of the applications for the H-1B programme, US data show. Nearly 85,000 H-1B visas are awarded each year.
India’s foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said the order would “likely affect movement of Indian skilled professionals.”
In suburban Dallas, Sandeep Vudayagiri, a big data analytics engineer, has been home alone since February, when his wife and daughter went to visit family in Hyderabad, India.
Vudayagiri’s wife, Arpana Takkalapally, holds an H-4 visa, given to immediate family of H-1B visa holders. Even though Takkalapally isn’t allowed to work on her visa, without a renewal stamp from a US consulate, she can’t go back.
‘Back-stabbing’
Takkalapally watched as Indian friends and neighbours flocked to Houston last year for a rally with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump. The leaders extolled the closeness of India-US ties. “Now it seems like some backstabbing,” Takkalapally said.