In a big relief to Indian professionals, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Indian professionals can renew their work visas without travelling abroad.
“America’s new consulates will be opened in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. It has now been decided that the H1B visa renewal can be done in the US itself,” PM Modi said while addressing the Indian diaspora at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington DC.
The move is part of a people-to-people initiative and comes after a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Modi and US President Joe Biden.
The United States authorities announced that they will introduce ‘in-country’ renewable H-1B visas as part of the people-to-people initiative to smoothen the process of H-1B visa renewal for several Indians who are working in the US on an H-1B visa. India is going to open a new consulate in Seattle this year.
Apart from this, Indian Consulates will be opened in 2 more cities in America. “Together we are not just forming policies and agreements, we are shaping lives, dreams, and destinies,” said PM Modi. This comes a day after the two countries welcomed an announcement by the US Department of State that it would launch a pilot to adjudicate domestic renewals of certain petition-based temporary work visas later this year.