Amid US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, over one lakh children of Indian H1-B visa holders in the United States are reportedly facing the risk of self deportation from America. These individuals migrated to America with their NRI parents on dependent visas, which would expire as soon as they turn 21. 

Till now, the American immigration policies allowed a two-year window to such children to opt for a new visa status after ‘ageing out’, but a slew of rule changes under the Trump administration and a few recent court cases have left them worried about the possibility of the provision being struck out.

There are nearly 1.34 lakh Indian children in the US who are expected to age out of dependent visa status before their families obtained green cards, Times of India (TOI) reported citing data from March 2023. Dependent children of H-1B visa holders can migrate to the US under the H-4 visa programme. But this provision expires as soon as they turn 21. 

DACA Ruling

Recently, a federal appeals court declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy–which provides a temporary two-year protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants, including dependent children– as unlawful.

Without this provision, a shadow of doubt looms over the future of such Indian youth. Adding to the problem is the fact that parents of many of these children have applied for green cards with a waiting period of between 12 years and 100 years.

Green Card Backlog

Meanwhile, the queue for the Green Card is showing no signs of easing. According to a report by Economic Times, at present, 10.7 lakh Indians are caught up in the employment Green-Card backlog (EB-2 and EB-3 categories), which will take 134 years to process.

Without the protection of DACA, the dependent children who are on the green card waiting list fear they may have to self-deport before they receive the US residency.

“Our waiting period is 23 years, and I am turning 21 this October. What am I supposed to do after that? Earlier, people would get two years of extension under DACA and they could study, work, and get social security numbers. But after the new govt came to power and banned birthright citizenship, everything is confusing,” said a Texas-based student told TOI.