America’s new policy increases the risk of losing Indian H-1B visa holder in tension, losing eligibility
US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has updated its policy related to age calculation under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA). Effectively for the applications filed on or after 15 August, 2025, these new rules clarify that Visa Availability for CSPA age calculation will be based on the final action date chart given in the Visa Bulletin of the State Department. In addition, the State Department has also made major changes in H-1B visas and other non-immigrant visa rules.
USCIS and State Department will depend on final action date chart
Under the new policy, both USCIS and the Department of State Department will depend on the final action date chart. This means that a visa is considered “available” only when the final action date becomes present. This change can reduce the duration of safety of children under CSPA, due to which some children may be older than before.
The policy applies to children of H-1B visa holders
The policy applies to the children of the H-1B visa holders living in the US who were born outside the country and have been stuck in visa backlogs for the past several years, losing their eligibility for a green card after 21 years of age and “aging”, resulting in their legal position.
This updated policy applies to all applications filed on or after 15 August, 2025. For pending application before this date, USCIS will continue to implement the old policy of February 14, 2023. The agency also clarified that applicants who fail to apply for a permanent residence within a year of visa available may also be eligible for performing extraordinary circumstances.
Risk of losing green card eligibility for children
This change has created concerns in the families of Indian H-1B visa holders, many of which have been facing visa backlogs for decades. There is a risk of losing the eligibility of green cards when children born outside the US are 21 years of age, even if they spend most of their lives in the country and are culturally recognized as Americans.
Will have to go to your country for visa renewal
In addition, the US State Department has also updated H-1B and other non-immigrant visa rules. The US State Department said that the in-tradition interview for applicants has been again made mandatory, which was ended earlier. This means that from September 2, 2025, all non-immigrant visa holders will have to join their home countries for their visa renuel.
Indians have been released the most H-1B visa
Let us tell you that Indians have the largest number of H-1B visa holders in America. According to a Business Standard report, H-1B was released to about 1,91,000 Indians in FY 2023 and in FY 2024, the number of Indians with H-1B visa increased to about 2,07,000.
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