US travel ban hits Indian-American families

New Delhi: Several families in the US find themselves separated from their loved ones more than 13,000 kms away across two continents as the Biden administration's ban on travellers from India in view of the unprecedented second wave of Covid-19 pandemic in the country has come into effect. In some cases, the main earning member of the family has been left stranded in India, with no way to rejoin their spouses and kids in the US while in some other instances, mothers have been separated from their young children as one of the unintended consequences of the travel ban announced by President Joe Biden last week. Certain categories of students, academics, journalists and individuals have been exempted from the ban, according to the US State Department. The travel ban is for an indefinite period given the major outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in India.

Some of these people say that they are now stuck in India for an indefinite period as the American consulates have also been shut down. "My husband who has been on H1B since 2008 had to travel to India on April 17 to be with his dying father and to perform last rites. Since then, the US embassy in India has been closed. Although he has an approved H1B visa, he needs visa stamping on his passport and also to attend an in-person interview at the US mission in Delhi," Neha Mahajan, co-founder of Skilled Immigrants in America, said.

"I am here with our two daughters who miss their dad during this extremely hard time for the family in the middle of this pandemic," she said.

Nashville-based Payal Raj said that she has no idea when and how will she get back from India to be with her nine-year-old child. "The bans are specifically targeted towards non-immigrants and their families and looking at the history of other country's bans, this could go on for months or even a year.

"There are thousands of people stuck with heart-breaking stories of coming here to attend to dying parents and then getting stuck due to the bans and not able to go back to their kids and spouses," Payal Raj said.

Abhinav Amresh finds himself stranded in Mumbai away from his kids because the US Consulate in Mumbai has been shut down as a result of which he cannot get his H1B visa stamped. The next available appointment that he is now getting is for September. Unless his visa is stamped, he cannot return to the US.

"The kids have never been away from their father for so long and the passing of their beloved grandmother and even their dad being away is already putting them under a lot of stress. Wife and I are primary caregivers for the kids and share all household responsibilities. Also, I am the main driver at home to bring groceries, take kids to their doctor (they have a visit and vaccination due) and all regular things," Amresh said.

The whole situation is becoming very stressful, he said. "My only question to the authorities is - despite the exceptions in travel ban, there are many people like me with young US citizen kids who had to travel on family emergencies but do not have a valid visa stamping. How can they come back to the US and unite with their family? This is a humanitarian crisis and child rights issue and if travel ban means visa ban then why not say so," he said.

Hemanth Modadugu was supposed to travel to India for H1B stamping and get married in May 2020. However, he had to cancel. He left the US for India in April. "I left Seattle on April 24. I reached Doha and within the next 10 minutes, I received an email that all visa appointments are cancelled. I cannot return to the US without stamping. So, I continued my journey to India. Even if I had a hint of appointment cancellation while in the US, I would have tried to cancel my trip," he said.