Immigration agencies and lawyers based in Punjab, India, had said that visa applications for the United States has dropped by nearly 70 percent. The US had issued 900,000 visas to Indian citizens in 2014. The drop in the number of visas issued to the Indians this year would be huge, according to Kuldip Singh, a member associate of bar in US, UK, and Canada with over 45 years of experience in immigration law.
“Each day, I am getting more than 400-500 inquiries by email and 100-200 applicants coming in person and now looking to change their destination to either Canada, Australia or New Zealand,” said Singh.
Indian techies to head to Canada
A civil engineering student at the State University of New York, Rushil Verma, had earlier planned to settle in the US after his studies, but now he has changed his mind.
“It’s not on my mind anymore. I have many Sikh friends here and their parents are now planning to shift to Canada. They don’t want to live here anymore. I will not be surprised if there is a dip in the number of Indian students applying to US universities next academic year,” Verma said.
An official at the Chandigarh-based overseas education consultancy IDP confirmed that there had been a dip in the number of applications by students who wanted to study in the US.
“Students are preferring Australia, Germany and the UK over the States. With Trump being elected as the President, they are worried of being sent back after some time,” said an official at the Chandigarh-based overseas education consultancy IDP.
Indian Americans to fight against racial intolerance
An immigration consultant based in Jalandhar confirmed that people are looking for other options. Sapna Hundal, Capability Developer, The Chopras, based in Chandigarh, said: “We are in the middle of submitting applications in US universities, but many students are withdrawing their applications. This is unheard of.”
Nitin from Amritsar said, “I have always dreamt of studying and working in the US but now I am looking elsewhere.”
Aditi Sharma from Dharamshala, who had shifted to US with her husband, said, “My husband is working in an IT company, but now we don’t know whether we should move back to India or buy more stuff to settle in US.”
By Premji
