US to deny tourists visa applications aimed at ‘giving birth to secure citizenship’

• US embassy in India reschedules visa interviews.
• New appointment dates extend to mid-2026.
• US hosts largest Indian diaspora including 2.1m NRIs.

The United States’ embassy in India has said that it will deny tourist visa applications if its consular officers believe that it is primarily aimed at giving birth in the country to secure US citizenship for a child.

“This is not permitted,” the US embassy in New Delhi said in a post on X.

The move, as reported by the Gulf News, adds to uncertainty for Indian visa holders which have so far caused unease among professionals accounting for over 70% H-1B approvals and nearly 90% H-4 visas with work authorisation.

The US embassy in India has rescheduled visa interviews with some applicants given fresh appointment dates extending to mid-2026.

The Trump administration, back in September, proposed that would rework the H-1B visa selection process to favour higher-skilled and better-paid workers, according to a related Federal Register notice, a move that follows a White House proclamation on Friday introducing a $100,000 fee for the visas.

The new process, if finalised, would give heavier weight to applications by employers who pay high wages if annual requests for the visas exceed the statutory limit of 85,000, the notice said.

The move aims to better protect Americans from unfair wage competition from foreign workers, it said.

President Trump, a Republican, sought to reshape the H-1B process during his 2017-2021 presidency, but was stymied by federal courts and limited time at the end of his presidency.

Tighter US immigration policies, particularly for the H-1B skilled-worker visa, are making families in India less inclined to marry their children to Indian citizens based in the US for fear the potential partners might lose their job or immigration status, according to matchmakers, academics and prospective brides and grooms.

There is no official government data on marriages between Indian citizens living at home and overseas.

The US has the world’s largest Indian diaspora, according to Indian government including around 2.1 million Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).

Since returning to office in January, Trump has launched a broad immigration crackdown, including efforts to limit legal pathways to residency. His overhaul of the H-1B visa marks the most prominent effort to reshape temporary work visas and hit Indians, who accounted for 71% of those visas last year, particularly hard.

About 75% of the H-1B visas issued to Indian citizens in 2024 were awarded to men, according to data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Trump’s visa overhaul has also prompted many Indian students to rethink the ‘American Dream’. There were some 422,335 Indian students in the US in 2024, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.