 The US elections and its impact on all future visas for Indians. If you too have been following the US elections really closely wondering what is in store then keep on watching. Hi guys, my name is Shachi and I am a travel and visa coach. On this channel you will find tons of useful videos on the US visa process so make sure to check them out. If you clicked on this video I am sure that you have followed the US election process really closely and you are wondering what is it that is in store for you especially if you are a H-1B aspirant and H-1B holder or you are in the middle of an immigration process to the US. But in this video I am going to discuss what the future of the US visa process could look like for Indians under President Biden both the positives as well as the negatives. Do keep in mind that all this is based on my own personal analysis and opinion it is definitely not legal advice and definitely not a certain outcome. So with this let's get started. So first things first in my opinion the entire US visa program will definitely see an improvement and a more relaxed approach under President Biden. Trump has been very vocal about keeping American jobs for Americans and his stance against immigration has also been quite harsh and this was very evident in all the visa changes that we kept seeing throughout 2020. Biden on the other hand has always been very pro immigration and all throughout his campaigns and you know all his speeches his approach towards immigration has been very positive and it has always been about giving opportunities to everybody. So all these are definitely good signs and something to look forward to. Next a huge positive change that we can expect under President Biden is with respect to the Trump proclamation of June 2020. Now if you remember in June 2020 the Trump administration came out with a proclamation which banned issue of new visas in a lot of categories. This included H1B, L1, their dependents. It also included ban on issue of new green cards and issue of immigration visas. We actually have an entire video on this channel which talks about this proclamation and discusses the effect of it. So if you are interested in knowing more do check out that video. Now this proclamation has a deadline to it. It is an effect till December 2020. And after December 2020 if it has to still remain valid it needs to be renewed. And it's highly highly unlikely that President Biden is going to renew this proclamation. Which means that it naturally expires in December 2020 and starting from Jan 2021 all these bans get lifted. So this is a huge positive and this is going to bring a lot of relief to many many Indians and their families. Due to this proclamation there were families which got separated because the spouse couldn't apply for the dependent visas. There were also a lot of people who were in the middle of getting their green cards and getting their immigration visas and their applications was put on hold. So definitely lifting of this ban is I think one of the biggest positive changes that we can expect to see under President Biden. Now in his campaigns Jen has promised a lot of visa reforms to be less harsh with H-1B visas, do away with country-wise quotas and also make it easier for people who are pursuing PhDs in the US to get their green cards. And these are some really big promises in my opinion especially when it comes to the country-wise quotas. Because the country-wise quota is a reason why it takes so many years for Indians to get their green cards. The quota allotted to Indians is small but the pool of Indians who are applying for the green cards is huge which results in a massive waiting period. So if all these reforms were to be actually implemented we would definitely see some huge positive changes. Next let's talk about the H-1B visas and I think this is where all eyes are going to be on Biden. Throughout his campaign he has promised to be less harsh with H-1B visas. But in my opinion it would be too much to expect a complete reversal of everything since the pandemic has really hit the American economy hard and the unemployment rate in the US has been at an all-time high. And as a president of a country he would be expected to do something to take care of these American jobs and you know do something for the American citizens. Also we need to keep in mind that a president alone cannot you know reverse an immigration law or he cannot pass an immigration law. He needs to work with the Congress and get their approval as well. One such area which could be a point of concern to a lot of Indians in my opinion is that Biden still supports a wage-based allocation of H-1B visas. Now what does it mean? We know that till now US visas the H-1B visas have been allocated based on a lottery system. So you had a lottery system and randomly people were selected and H-1B visas were allocated. Now if this is replaced by a wage-based allocation it would definitely favor those who are at a higher wage level and affect those who are seeking entry level jobs. Now who are the people seeking entry level jobs? This essentially constitutes the bulk of Indians who apply for H-1B visas from various IT companies like VIPRO, TCS, Infosys. It also constitutes a lot of Indian students who are just graduating out of American universities and seeking entry level jobs into the US workforce. So if a wage-based allocation does come into effect for H-1B visas we can expect that a huge percentage, a huge chunk of the Indian workforce is going to be impacted. Hence what are these H-1B reforms and how they are going to be implemented is something that we really need to watch out for. However on a positive note if not policy reforms we can definitely expect some administrative reforms. Under the Trump administration the entire visa program had slowed down considerably and the number of visas that were being issued was at an all-time low and many times it was due to very trivial admin issues such as problems with the vendor who prints the green card and so on. Now all these admin issues are expected to be taken care of under President Jordan and the entire visa program will definitely pick up some speed. Lastly let's quickly look at the F-1 and the B-1B2 visas. Now F-1 visas are the student visas and the Trump administration did try to introduce a lot of curbs in the F-1 visa but these got reversed almost immediately. However there is a proposal for duration of stay and duration of stay essentially will limit your F-1 visa to a timeline of 4 years. Now till now there has not been any restriction on the number of years you can stay on your F-1 visa as long as your education is ongoing but the duration of stay will limit the number of years that you have to completely finish your education in US to 4 years and if this does in fact come into effect this is something which could impact a lot of Indian students. On the other hand talking about B-1B2 visas now these are short term non-immigrant visas and I don't think that any major changes are going to come into effect with respect to these. So guys this was my prediction and analysis with respect to what is in store for us Indians when it comes to the US visas in the year 2021. Do let me know what you think if you have any more predictions or analysis of your own put them down in the comment section below. A lot of you have been sending me queries with respect to the status of the visa process in India what has opened what has not opened and so on. Now I keep putting all of these updates on the community tab of the channel and make sure that you subscribe you hit the bell icon so that you get all of these updates. In short to summarize the current status B-1B2 visas have not resumed operation as of now. F-1 visas that is student visa appointments are going on they open sometime in August and students are now free to schedule their visa appointments and you know get their visas. So Dropbox renewal of lot of visa categories have resumed and this is in process and we can expect that in the coming weeks and in the coming one or two months things to return to a more normal pace and more and more visa categories to reopen. And before I end here's a special note for all of you applying for the F-1 visa for all of you students out there. So we have just come out with an interview course for F-1 visa and this is a course which is going to help you prepare for your visa interview and clear it from the comfort of your home. This is a pretty extensive course it consists of video modules which will take you through all the important questions which are asked in the interview it will tell you how to answer them show you sample answers and we also have additional things such as a document checklist that you need for the interview some templates which will help you prepare yourself and so on. So details of all of this is in the description box below. Make sure that you check it out. Thank you so much for watching this video. I'll see you in the next one. Signing off till then. Bye.