Travel to different corners of the world has heavily been restricted by immigration authorities of respective countries, to minimalize the chances of spread of coronavirus.
Reports now come in from U.S., where Indians on work visa are finding it highly restrictive to travel back to their home country India, if they have a U.S. born child/children.
Indians with U.S. born kids
The Vande Bharat mission, the Indian government’s largest-ever, launched last month was to deport 149 flights to 31 countries to bring back all the Indians stranded in those countries.
So far, over 1.07 lakh people have returned to India through this programme.
However, it has been notified that thousands of U.S. cases have come in, where citizens of India with valid work visa are wanting to return to India but are not allowed to enter the country because they have a U.S. born child with them.
The current Indian law considers emergency visas, however there are visa restrictions or categories like emergency, or entry visas.
Every citizen, including the baby/infant must have an Indian visa or Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card, at these times of travel, if they wish to enter India.
Problems Faced by Different Indians
Anguraj Kailasam’s work visa has expired, which now places her in the category of ‘out of status’ in the U.S. The US laws expect her to leave the country as soon as possible but the Indian law doesn’t allow her US-born daughter to enter the country.
She has requested the Indian government to allow minors of Indians with visas to travel in the Vande Bharat mission. Despite having an entry and emergency visa, her daughter cannot go back to India since all visas are suspended by the government of India.
Similarly, Gopinath Nagarajan also has depicted his problems, saying that his mother is in coma in India. Since he is a father of a four month US-born infant, he cannot really use the Vande Bharat mission.
Jincy Mathew’s six months old baby doesn’t have an Overseas Citizenship of India card, which makes it very difficult for her to return to India.
Not just that, Jincy’s student visa is also about to expire but due to the closure of even the USCIS, her applications are not being accepted currently. They’re stranded in the U.S. with no money and food.
Rose Merin Pathrose, who was working in Chicago on an H-1B visa, vacated her apartment, sold her car and furniture and packed her suitcases to move back to India with her three-year-old son, for whom she was able to get an Indian tourist visa.
There are many people with similar situations who would be running out of money to survive unless they reach India and resume work.
Victoria Michael, a Malaysia citizen, married an Indian citizen last year and is now 30 weeks’ pregnant. She wants to return to her husband in Punjab, as she is now unemployed and wants the care during her pregnancy period and after the child is born.
However, she is not eligible for an OCI card as she is married for less than two years. If she doesn’t get a visa and travel back to India until mid-July (which is her due date), she will have to hand over her child to an orphanage as she isn’t financially stable to take care of the baby on her own.
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