INDIA MUST FORMALLY OPPOSE US MOVE TO SCRAP 60-DAY H-1B GRACE PERIOD BEFORE 10 NOVEMBER: KBS SIDHU TO EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER

FORMER SPECIAL CHIEF SECRETARY, PUNJAB, SEEKS LEGAL-AID DESK AT HOUSTON CONSULATE FOR INDIAN FAMILIES IN TEXAS; SAYS SHAM SPONSORS SHOULD BE PROSECUTED, BUT A COMMUNITY SHOULD NOT BE PUT ON TRIAL

Face2News/Chandigarh 

The Government of India should file a formal comment against the United States’ proposal to abolish the 60-day grace period for laid-off H-1B workers before the comment window closes on 10 November 2026, and should open a legal-aid desk at the Consulate General of India in Houston for Indian families caught in the Texas visa crackdown, KBS Sidhu, former Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, has urged External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar.

In a letter sent to the Minister on Tuesday, with copies to the Ambassador of India in Washington and the Consul General in Houston, KBS Sidhu said two separate developments in Dallas, Austin and the towns of North Texas were being merged in public debate, so that a whole community was being treated as suspect for the conduct of a few intermediaries.

The first is an enforcement drive. The Texas Attorney General has served civil investigative demands on nearly 30 North Texas firms suspected of running “ghost offices”, and on 13 August the Inspector General of the US Department of Labor announced that investigators had gone door to door in a Dallas building linked to more than 500 approved H-1B petitions and found little sign of active business.
“Where petitions were obtained on fictitious jobs, those responsible should be prosecuted, and I do not ask the Government of India to defend them,” KBS Sidhu wrote, adding that many of the sham sponsors are themselves of Indian origin and that some of the consultancies feeding them operate from Indian cities.

The second development, he said, is the hardship of families who broke no rule. A laid-off H-1B worker has 60 days to find a new sponsor, in a market where a new petition now carries a fee of $100,000. On 11 September 2026 the US Department of Homeland Security published a proposal to abolish even that period. “If it is finalised, the last day at work becomes the last day of lawful stay, for a family that may have lived in the United States for over a decade and holds a mortgage there,” the letter says.

KBS Sidhu cautioned that viral social media claims of Indian families abandoning houses and cars in the Dallas suburbs are, so far, few and unverified, and that no court has yet returned a finding against any of the firms under investigation. The pressure behind such departures is, however, real and will grow, he said.

The letter makes three requests of the Ministry of External Affairs:

* A legal-aid and advisory desk at the Consulate General of India, Houston, for Indian nationals who have lost their jobs or whose sponsoring firm is under investigation, including guidance on an orderly exit, since an abandoned mortgage follows the borrower and may prejudice a future visa application.
*A formal comment by the Government of India on the proposed rule before 10 November 2026, with a diplomatic representation that any change should apply prospectively and preserve a reasonable period for those already resident.
*Regulation of white-collar overseas placement consultancies in India, which at present fall almost wholly outside the Emigration Act, 1983.

KBS Sidhu also asked the Government to press one distinction with Washington and with the State of Texas. “Enforcement may properly name firms, but it should not describe a people,” he wrote.