BARACK OBAMA’S IMMIGRATION SPEECH AND WHAT IT MEANS TO INDIANS IN USA

USA President Barack Obama’s Speech on Immigration grabbed the attention of the world. Let’s now see what it means to Indians in USA. President Obama talked about 3 major issues of the broken immigration system.

  • Building stronger borders to stop trespassing.
  • Respecting High skilled immigrants, graduates and entrepreneurs.
  • Dealing responsibly with undocumented immigrants.

The second one is the one which Majority of the Indians fall under. The first issue of stronger borders do not apply for us as we do not have a border with USA.

“I will make it easier and faster for high skilled immigrants, graduates, and entrepreneurs to stay  and contribute to our economy, as so many business leaders have proposed.”  – Obama

These lines talk about the Doctors and Doctorate degree holders, making immigration easier. The graduates and the graduate students are expected to have an advantage here. The OPT is expected to raise from 29 months to 48 months. This will be a huge relief to the graduate students who come in lakhs to USA from India, especially from Telugu and Kannada states with high software influence.

Students of F1 visas will gain heavily from this move as they can work for 48 months without applying for a H1 Visa which is now picked by a lottery. The return on investment is the majority of students think of when they come for a master’s degree in USA, this move will make the Hotcake much hotter.

The Entrepreneur factor that President Obama spoke of is the “Start-Up” bill allowing immigrants to start up with companies while paying high taxes and employing at least 5 full-timers over a period of 2 years to get a status to do a technology business in USA. This will be a huge advantage for Indian Entrepreneurs to start up in Silicon Valley instead of working for Silicon Valley to build the dreams of American Citizens.

This Start-Up bill is not expected to pass easily, nor is Obama’s statement clear about it. If it is the way it is documented so far, will be a big blow to India’s planned Start up based multi-fold growth for the next decade. The brain drain so far is only in technology, if extends to entrepreneurs will be a boon to the USA as it becomes the world start-up destination.