Trump years were better for Indian H-1B and citizenship applicants: MC Analysis

Indians did better under Trump

The appointment of Sriram Krishnan as a policy advisor on artificial intelligence has led to a political backlash for the incoming Donald Trump administration from the far-right asking for a ban on H-1B visas, but a Moneycontrol analysis shows that Trump years have been better for Indian immigrants.

The four years that Trump held office witnessed the highest number of H-1B visas approved for Indians and the maximum rate of naturalisations of Indian citizens during the last sixteen years.

Indians have long been the highest-ranked applicants for H-1B visas, which are granted to people with specialised skills, but the approval rate increased during Trump’s first term in office.

In the four years that Donald Trump was president, Indians accounted for an average of 73.9 percent of total approvals granted each year, as per data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The ratio declined to 73 percent for Biden’s three years in office, while it was 70 percent in Barrack Obama’s second term and 55.9 percent during his first stint from 2009-2012.

Naturalisation rates also higher during Trump

Data indicates that naturalisation rates or people obtaining US citizenship were also higher during Trump years.

Indians have been the second highest number of people securing naturalisation after Mexicans. But the naturalisation rate declined in the last four years to 6.65 percent. During Donald Trump’s first term, 215,738 or 7.34 percent of Indians got US citizenship.

This was significantly higher than Obama’s second term’s record of 6 percent naturalisation for Indians and 7.32 percent in the first term.

Data released by USCIS shows that Indians tend to take fewer years to naturalise than their Mexican counterparts.

While on average it takes 7.5 years to obtain US citizenship, Indians do it faster at six years. Mexicans take even longer at 10.9 years to get naturalised.