Bad news for Indians students, H-1B visa holders as US govt decides to shut down…, set to affect…
US H-1B Visa: United States President Donald Trump is giving shock after shock with his decisions. Recently, he decided to shut down three important monitoring agencies, including the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Ombudsman’s Office. According to immigration attorneys, this decision by the Trump administration has come as a major shock to the Indian community, especially for those who are working in America on H-1B visas and studying on F-1 visas. These people used to get a lot of help from the Ombudsman’s Office, but now, with the closure of the office, there will be no one to help them.
According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), removing or eliminating oversight bodies would allow the Trump administration to exercise its powers without investigation.
Notably, the CIS Ombudsman’s Office used to assist people with issues such as wrongful rejection of applications, errors in documents and postal problems. In 2024, the office assisted nearly 30,000 applicants. H-1B visa and F-1 visa holders used to get help from the Ombudsman’s Office in resolving problems faced by USCIS.
The CIS Ombudsman’s office assisted 30,000 applicants last year, addressing issues such as application denials, document errors, and postal delays, according to AILA senior director Sharwari Dalal-Dheni. Immigration attorney Rajiv S. Khanna noted that F-1 and H-1B visa holders frequently sought the Ombudsman’s help when facing USCIS-related problems that jeopardized their legal status and employment.
Rajiv stated that a high volume of complaints to the CIS Ombudsman concerns processing delays, particularly for H-1B visa extensions. He gave an example of a case where an engineer from Bangalore faced an 11-month delay, jeopardising his employment and housing, before Ombudsman intervention secured a two-week resolution. But then the Ombudsman intervened and his visa was extended within two weeks.
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