Beeline to the US gets longer
By Indrani Bagchi/TNN
Times of India, January 19, 2005
New Delhi: If current trends persist, this could be the biggest year ever for Indians visiting the US. At a time when international visitors, harried by the post 9/11 security rigmarole, are putting off their America visit, Indians are voting with their feet, with more students and businessmen all headed to the US.
Visa issuances in all categories for the first three months of financial year 2005 (US accounting calendar starts from October) are up by 12%, said William Bartlett, the US consul general. Visas for students are up 3%. “If current trends persist, this year could see the greatest demand ever by Indians to travel to the US,” Bartlett said. Clearly, delays in visa procedures and other procedural complications have not deterred Indians, although worldwide, there has been a drop in visits to the US. What’s it that makes Indians different?
“Well, the transformed relations between the US and India have been the main driver,” said Bartlett. India-US ties have jumpstarted, ironically after the 1998 nuclear test, to become one of the most promising strategic partnerships in the past few years, he said. India is the leading country for legal migration to the US, naturalization, temporary workers (read H1-B) and students. Add to this a 2 million-strong Indian American population, that is also the most affluent and you have a heady US-India cocktail.
In 2003, Indian applications for H1-B visas was four times higher that its nearest competitor. A report of the Institute Of International Education said that while the US was attracting less foreign students, the number of Indian students in the US climbed by 6.9% to 79,736.
Visa delays are endemic, particularly after the new security systems have been installed in the wake of 9/11. To cope with the increased demand, the US government has added 30% more interviewing windows in all the US consulates in the country.
Bush reopens search for homeland chief
By Donna de La Cruz / Associated Press - December 12, 2004
Washington - The White House renewed its search for a homeland security chief Saturday as the candidate President Bush thought ideal apologized for an immigration problem involving a family housekeeper that forced him to withdraw.
"I owe the president ... a great apology that this may have caused him and his administration a big distraction," Bernard Kerik said.
The surprise withdrawal by the former New York City police commissioner sent Bush back in search of a nominee to head the sprawling Department of Homeland Security, which was created after Sept. 11, 2001, to improve coordination and protection against future terrorist attacks.
On Saturday, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has been mentioned as a possible choice, expressed no interest in the job. "I am not a candidate," he said.
Sen. Susan Collins, who heads the Senate committee that will take up the nomination, said two "terrific choices" would be Asa Hutchinson, the department's assistant secretary, or Sen. Joe Lieberman,
D-Conn.
Indian
American woman's plight evokes concern in US
Indo-Asian News Service - December 11, 2004
Chicago, Dec 10: The detention of Indian American woman Terwinder Singh on charges of breaking US immigration laws has led several religious groups here to voice concern and urge for broader immigration laws.
Wisdom, a coalition of about 90 south eastern Wisconsin religious congregations, and its Milwaukee and Waukesha affiliates plans to urge Congressman James Sensenbrenner to intervene on Terwinder's behalf and hold congressional hearings on broader immigration law reform issues.
Sensenbrenner's press secretary Raj Bharwani said in a telephone interview that the Congressman "never got involved, because he was never contacted by any member of the (Singh) family or a family representative."
"Concern for this woman and her family is pretty widespread," according to the Reverand Joy
McDonald-Coltvelt of Galilee Lutheran Church in Pewaukee, a member of Wisdom's Waukesha affiliate, Stewards of Prophetic Hopeful Intentional Action (SOPHIA).
"My pastor colleagues have been calling me all day," she said. "Their congregations are concerned about this woman. Her treatment seems harsh and unfair to them."
"I have two children exactly the same age and I can't even imagine what her children are going through. We hope, by putting a face on the issue, the real fear, pain and suffering that is being caused to hundreds of families in similar situations comes to light," she said.
Joyce Ellwanger, a member of Wisdom's Milwaukee affiliate, Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH), said Wisdom seeks a "total revision of the 1996 immigration law."
She said the parts of the law that particularly need changing are those affecting people such as Terwinder Singh who have been here a long time.
The law needs to provide a way to "legalize their stay" and to offer naturalization as US citizens "if desired".
"Families like the Singhs should not be forced to make a 'Sophie's choice'," she said, "between forcing children to 'return' to a country they don't know and separating them from one or both of their parents."
Joyce Ellwanger hopes for a solution in the SOLVE (Safe, Orderly, Legal Visas and Enforcement Act of 2004) bill, co-sponsored in the US Senate by senators Russ Feingold and Edward Kennedy, and in the House of Representatives by Illinois Representative Luis Gutierrez and 47 of his colleagues.
She's not as hopeful about President George W. Bush's proposal for a "guest worker"
programme. "It doesn't meet any criteria for fairness," she said. "It amounts to exploitation of the labour of immigrants who do the work that others won't or can't do."
The Rev. Al Nichols of Lisbon Presbyterian Church said current immigration law had divided "tens of thousands of families" in the
Singhs' situation.
Nichols is concerned over how 31-year-old Terwinder Singh's two children will cope with her deportation.
A previous visit to India had made Terwinder's 12-year-old daughter,
Manpreet, sick on the food and water. While her eight-year-old son,
Gagan, speaks his parents' native Punjabi, neither children can read or write the language.
Deportation would also separate her from her husband, 46-year-old Ram Singh, with whom she co-owns Olde Country Spirits.
In the meantime, Terwinder Singh hopes to rejoin her family here while she awaits final disposition of her case. According to Nichols, it will be akin to trading her jailhouse confinement for an electronic leg bracelet that would allow authorities to track her movements.
Don’t say cheese for US visa pic
The Times Of India, Hyderabad - December 9,2004
Pittsburgh: Imagine being denied a passport for; of all things your teeth. It could happen , but not because they are crooked.Under new rules for visa photographs that began this summer; the US State department doesn’t want to see them at all.
The new guidelines permit people to smile for passport and visa pictures but frown on toothly smiles, which apparently are classified as unusual or unnatural expressions. The subjects expression should be neutral (non-smiling) with both eyes open, and mouth closed. A smile with a closed jaw is allowed but is not preferred, according to the guidelines.
So why does the State Department frown on smiles?
“Smiling distorts other facial features, for example your eyes, so you’re supposed to have a neutral expression… The most neutral face is the most desirable standard for any type of identification,”said Angela Aggeler; spokeswomen for the State Departments Bureau of Consular Affairs.
“To allow for best possible comparison, if you smile or blink your eyes or turn your head, there would be fewer comparison points. So when you go to the counter: you will look at the camera in neutral face to offer the best comparison to the picture in the passport”, said Dennis Chagnon, a a spokesman for the International Civil Aviation
Organisation.
LatAm and the government urged to relax business visa norms
G Ganapathy Subramaniam
The Economic Times, Hyderabad - December 9, 2004
New Delhi: In view of the growing bilateral trade with south America, corporates and the government have requestd Latin American countries to liberalise visa rules for the Indian businessmen. The issue has been taken up at the diplomatic level by corporates and the government has backed the effort.
A number of corporates including big players like Infosys and the Tatas, have been facing difficulties in obtaining visas even for their top executives to visit Latin American Countries.In the case of Mexico and Panama,it takes at least one month for visas to be issued while a number of countries in the region do not issue a visa unless a formal invitation from a business partner or client in the country concerned is furnished.
This has led to a series of informal representatives to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), especially Focus-LAC programme which seeks to enhance business with southAmerica which is seen as an emerging market. Since delays and uncertainties in obtaining visas were affecting growth in bilateral trade and business partnerships, it is understood that the government has also backed the efforts of India Inc to bring about a better visa regime.
Indian businessmen get 10 year multiple entry visas to visit the US, but face a series of difficulties in managing travel documents for Latin America. It has also been pointed out that the Indian missions in Latin American countries issue five-year multiple entry visas to businessmen from these nations to visit India. “We are seeking reciprocity and pointing out that even the US is not so stringent.” Corporate sources said. The procedure for obtaining visas to Latin American countries is bureaucratic and time-consuming, the sources said and added that many unnecessary documents are sought. “Many Indian businessmen are still exploring the Latin American market and business volumes are low. A large number of them are first time visitors. How can they produce a formal invitation from a prospective client,” asked a senior industry representative.
Dual
citizenship law passed earlier this year!
The Law Office of Sheela Murthy
Many of our clients have been contacting us at The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C. to inquire about the status of dual citizenship between India and the United States. Our affiliate office in India researched the issue and informed us that the Government of India passed the Citizenship Amendment Act into law on January 7, 2004.
In November 2004, representatives from The Law Office of Sheela Murthy contacted the Embassy of India in the United States (Indian Embassy) and were advised that Embassy officials were not aware of the change in the law. At that time they did not yet have procedures in place to accept applications for dual citizenship from U.S. citizens. Since our request, the Indian Embassy has updated its
Consular Services
Website.
An individual living in a specified country (Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Republic of Cyprus, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, or the United States of America), who is interested and eligible to apply for Overseas Citizenship for India, should check with the Indian Embassy in the country of residence or nationality, to determine whether the Indian Embassy has begun to accept Overseas Citizenship applications.
Eligibility for Overseas Citizenship
The following persons are eligible to register as Overseas Citizens of India: (a) Persons of Indian Origin of full age and capacity, who are citizens of a specified country; (b) persons of full age and capacity, who obtained the citizenship of a specified country on or after the commencement of the Act and who were citizens of India immediately before such commencement; or (c) persons who are minor children of a person mentioned in clause (a) or (b). Overseas Citizen of India status is effective from the date a person registers for that status.
For the purpose of this Act, a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) is defined as a citizen of another country, who: (a) was eligible to become a citizen of India at the time of the commencement of the Constitution; (b) belonged to a territory that became part of India after the 15th day of August 1947; and (c) the children and grandchildren of a person covered under clauses (a) and (b).
This definition does not include a person who is or was at any time a citizen of Pakistan, Bangladesh, or such other country as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify.
Limited Privileges for Overseas Citizens
Overseas Indian citizens are not entitled to the entire privileges extended to other Indian citizens. The Act provides that an overseas citizen of India shall not be entitled to: equality of opportunity in matters of public employment; election as President, Vice President, or Judge of the Supreme Court or High Court; registration as a voter; being a member of the House of the People or of the Council of States; being a member of the Legislative Assembly or a Legislative Council of a state; or appointment to public services and posts in connection with affairs of the Union or of any state, except for appointment in such services and posts as the Central Government may specify by special order in that behalf.
How to Apply
Applications for registration as an Overseas Citizen of India should be submitted in triplicate to one of the following locations: if the applicant is in India, to the Collector within whose jurisdiction the applicant is normally resident; if the applicant is abroad, then to the Indian Consulate, within the jurisdiction where applicant is a citizen. In both cases the application will be forwarded to the Central Government of India through the appropriate channels for adjudication.
Persons of Indian Origin of full age and capacity who are citizens of specified countries use Form XIX to apply. Persons who are of full age and capacity, who obtained the citizenship of a specified country on or after the commencement of the Act and who were citizens of India immediately before such commencement, use Form XIX A.
Children of those persons who would use Form XIX or Form XIX A use Form XIX B to apply. India charges $275 for registration, regardless which form is required. Of this, $250 is refundable if the registration as Overseas Citizen is not accepted. Processing times for registration have not yet been established.
Renunciation of Overseas Indian Citizenship
It is possible to renounce Overseas Indian Citizenship by filing Form XXII. The fee to renounce is $25. This renunciation will be registered by the Central Government of India. Once this application is registered, the applicant ceases to be an Overseas Citizen of India.
If the person renouncing his/her Overseas Citizenship has minor children, such minor children will also cease to be overseas citizens of India. It is not clear whether these children will cease to be Overseas Citizens of India if both parents are Overseas Citizens of India and one parent renounces, but the other does not.
Green Cards Get a New Look
Siskind Law - 30 November, 2004
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced last week that it has made minor changes to the look of the Permanent Resident Card (Form I-551), commonly known as the “Green Card.” The new look of the Permanent Resident Card now features the DHS seal on the front and significantly mentions the “Department of Homeland Security” on the back.
Changes to the Green Cards occurred because the agency ran out of Department of Justice cardstock used by the old Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). USCIS has also added enhanced security features to the card.
USCIS began mailing the new Permanent Resident Card November 15 to qualified immigrants approved for either renewal of their card or for adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident. Those cards already in circulation remain valid until the expiration date listed on the card or until recalled by USCIS. Permanent Resident Cards are issued by USCIS as evidence of a lawful permanent resident’s authorization to live and work in the United States.
India Now at No. 4 as US migrant source
Economic Times - 26, November 2004
India is the fourth largest source of immigrants to the United States. Immigrants have been the biggest source of population increase in the United States. There are more than 34 million foreign born US residents, a record high. Between 2000 and 2004, 6.1 million persons migrated to the US, of these nearly two million are illegal immigrants. While Mexico is the largest contributor, India ranks fourth behind China and Philippines.
What could emerge as a worry point for Indians in the US, is the erosion of diverse nature of the immigration pool. The diversity of the immigrant population continues to decline, with the top country, Mexico, accounting for 31% of all immigrants in 2004, up from 28% in 2000, 22% in 1990 and 16% in 1980. This could mean that future policy and legislative measures targeted for immigration may be skewed. Interestingly, the percentage of Indian immigrants has been stable over the period.
Immigrants now account for nearly 12% of the US population. This is the highest percentage in more than 80 years. The immigration trends over the last four years have had no significant effect on the age structure in the US. If the 6.1 million immigrants who arrived after 2000 had not come, the average age in the US would be virtually unchanged.
Visa Signals Green
Campuses see fewer visa delays for foreign students
in ’04
By Candice Zachariahs
Economic Times - 26, November 2004
If fears of rejection or delays on the visa front are clouding your plans to study in America, here’s some data that may calm your mind. In a recent survey of 480 US institutions, a majority of respondents reported decreases in the number of new international students who missed first day on campus due to visa delays. At universities that enroll larger numbers of international students the decreases were even more prominent.
The report of Foreign Student And School Enrollment And Visa Trends For Fall 2004 noted that of 15 responding schools that enroll over 2500 international students there was a decrease of 48% in new undergrad students missing start dates. On the graduate side, 18 schools that enroll over 2500 students saw a 61% fall in delays faced by fresh students.
In India, the US consulates issued 5063 F-1 student visas in ’04, against the 5019 visas issued in the previous year. In addition, 55 M-1 non-academic student visas (47 last year); and 513 J-1 exchange visitor visas (613) were issued. “From the US department of state in Washington, to the embassy and consulates in India, every effort has been made to facilitate visa issuances for Indian students,” said spokesperson from the US Consulate.
Given the intense criticism that the US has faced on visa issues, consulates made an extra effort to ensure the process was as smooth as possible: During the busy summer season, students received visa appointments within two weeks, while most other applicants waited six weeks for an interview date. “Officers came in an several Saturdays during the summer to interview students. Currently, students obtain an interview appointment within one to two days while the appointment backlog for other visa categories is two weeks,” adds the spokesperson.
Fewer visa delays have not translated- at least this year- into higher enrollments. The perception that US visas are now ‘harder to get’ has influenced some students to look elsewhere. The US consulate is at pains to point out that “the reality is that the Congressionally-mandated checks only affect a tiny percentage of all visa applications. In addition, the delay associated with these checks was reduced only 30 days for 98%of affected applications in ‘ 04.
The falling numbers are more likely to be a reaction to tougher employment conditions than to student visa difficulties. Purdue University president Martin Jischke admitted as much before a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee: “Our students listed other core reasons for the decline in international enrolments. Most frequently mentioned was the US economy. The US economy has struggled for the past four years and many international students have trouble finding even internships during their studies,” he said.
Recently the US government moved to ease some of these difficulties by allowing 20,000 extra H1-B work visas for foreign students with Masters and doctorate degrees from the US. Once this move is signed into law, students may find they have more elbow room in the job market, which could substantially alter the attractiveness of the US as a study destination for the next batch of students.
Immigrant
population in N.C. nearly doubled in four years
The Associated Press - 26 November, 2004
RALEIGH — A new study says North Carolina's foreign-born population has nearly doubled in the past four years despite an economy that might discourage some from moving here.
The report was released by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that favors tougher restrictions on immigration. It was based on U-S Census Bureau figures.
The report found that North Carolina's immigrant population jumped from 373-thousand in 2000 to 641-thousand as of March. The center's research director, Steven Camarota, says immigration is a complex issue that's driven by many more things than the economy.
The report doesn't show where North Carolina's immigrants came from, but the 2000 census found that 40 percent came from Mexico. Experts in the state say Mexico is still the top country of origin -- probably due to word-of-mouth from people who have moved here, then told their friends back home that it's a good place to live.
English marches on in the age of Bush and Blair
By Paul Johnson
The Spectator (U.K.) - November 13, 2004
I see that some commentators suggest the newly elected Bush should hasten to make it up with Europe. Why should he? What weight does Europe (excluding Britain) carry in the world today? Less and less. I suspect that by the end of Bush’s second term the pattern of the future will be emerging, a triumvirate of three great power groups: India, China and the English-speaking world. Demographic projections are notoriously unreliable, but we have to go by the available evidence, and that points strongly in the direction of an Anglo-Indian-Chinese world, with Europe marginalised. By 2050 India will have 1,628 million people, China will have 1,393 million and America, with by far the largest of the ‘advanced’ peoples, will have 422 million, a 45 per cent increase on the 2003 figure.
By contrast the projections for Europe tell a dismal tale. I remember telling an international conference on European culture, held in Vienna 40 years ago, that Continentals should stop boasting about it and put their pricks where their mouths are by raising the birthrates. I used colourful language to stress the point and provoked fury. Alas, nearly a generation later my warnings are proving only too accurate. Germany, population nearly 83 million in 2003, will have only 67.7 million by 2050. Italy will drop 9 per cent to only 52.3 million. France will increase slightly but only thanks to an extra 5 million Muslims. Spain will be stationary, again thanks to Muslims, otherwise falling steeply. Poland and Greece will drop 12 per cent each, Portugal and the Czech Republic will each shrink by 10 per cent, Hungary by an alarming 25 per cent, Russia by 18 per cent, with the prospect of dwindling below the 100 million mark well before the end of the century. Even if the EU expands to include Russia, the USA is on course to overtake it in population, let alone GNP.
Not so long ago, at a vainglorious meeting in Lisbon, EU bosses boasted that by 2010 they would be running a ‘world-beating’ economy well ahead of the US. The panel of experts set up then has now produced its report, and grim reading it makes. It notes that falling population will extinguish the already feeble economic dynamism in Europe completely. The magic date 2010 is just a milestone on this road to the cemetery. By 2050 the ratio of pensioners to active workers will more than double, jumping from 24 to 50 per cent. An extra 8 per cent of GDP will be required just to keep healthcare and pension costs at current levels. The report states that ‘the growth-gap with America and Asia has widened and time is running out’. Productivity growth, probably the most important economic indicator of all, is much lower than America’s and falling; and growth itself is predicted to fall almost automatically as population shrinks and dependency increases. Europe is falling behind in advanced sectors. The report notes that 74 per cent of the 300 leading information firms are now American, one reason why America wins so many Nobel prizes and continental Europe so few.
Britain, I observe, does not fit into this tale of universal woe. With a strong economy and higher population increase projections, and (despite shortfalls) far better pension provisions than most EU states, Britain has chosen to align itself with the American pattern of development and (despite all the efforts of New Labour) is flourishing accordingly. So is Australia, a country which has just emphatically confirmed its identification with US policies, in economics and geopolitics alike. Australia now has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and a projected population increase, by 2050, of 48 per cent, larger even than America’s.
In all the gloom for old Europe, it is hardly surprising to see a Daily Telegraph headline ‘Fed-up French turning to Britain’. The 300,000 French now living in Britain form the largest French expatriate colony in Europe, and cite the greater freedom they find in England from bureaucratic regulation and restraint on small business as their reason for coming here. (There are also, I am pleased to see, signs of a growing German migration here, our living standards now being appreciably higher than in Germany, and jobs much easier to find.) This French preference for Britain is something entirely new in our joint history; if we except the sudden mass movement of Huguenots to England following Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, an event which did so much damage to the French economy and was of so much benefit to ours. In other ways, too, the French, though so proud of their own culture and instinctively hostile to our way of doing things, are being forced by the harsh facts of life to move in our direction. It looks as though the authorities are about to haul down the flag in the teaching of English in French schools. The recently published report on the subject by a commission of experts headed by Claude Thélot recommends that the teaching of English in all French schools be mandatory and that it be accorded the same importance as the French language and mathematics. It accepts as an unarguable fact that English is now the ‘language of international communication’ and that young people in France must be able to speak, read and write it fluently.
What seems to have impressed the commissioners is that French youth is slipping behind other EU countries in its ability to understand English, actually regressing in the years 1996–2002. By contrast, the Spanish, traditionally monoglot, are moving ahead. Under a 1990 law all Spanish children are now taught English from the age of eight, and in some regions from six. In the Madrid region there are 26 bilingual schools and colleges in which courses — with the exception of Spanish literature and mathematics — are taught in English. By 2007 there will be 110 such establishments.
Mr Raffarin, the French Prime Minister, accepts the logic of the Thélot report and will implement it. Mr Chirac, of course, being ‘anti-Anglo-Saxon’ to the bone, countered with a high-minded plea for cultural diversity. ‘Nothing could be worse for humanity than to move to a position where everyone speaks the same language.’ Really? Come off it, Jacques! While France hesitates about what to do, the Indians are in no doubt. The wisdom of Macaulay in pushing the spread of English during his spell as a legal adviser in India is now being endorsed by events. As India emerges as a major economic power, several million Indians are now finding English speech essential — indeed, among the vast numbers employed in outsourcing, it is their livelihood.
The truth is, language is the most democratic of all institutions. People determine how they speak themselves, and they are driven by simple self-interest.
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