“The Great Elephant Migration” by The Coexistence Collective

September 20, 2024 Fiona Danyko

After a long journey, “The Great Elephant Migration” has finally made its way to New York City. The herd will call the Meatpacking District home for the next few weeks, inviting us all to walk alongside the elephants as they explore the neighborhood. The traveling herd of 100 pachyderm models are each inspired by an individual living elephant in the Nilgiri Hills region of Southern India, and the sculptures are constructed by indigenous artisans and contemporary artists. The majestic elephants are meant to mimick “how it is when you’re in India, with the elephants walking through the streets” according to Dodie Kazanjian, the founder of the Rhode Island nonprofit Art&Newport, who curated the elephants’ US tour.

We last caught up with the elephants in London back in 2021 and are thrilled to visit them again in our backyard! A must see for kids of all ages, the installation will leave us October 20th and travel throughout the US through 2025.

US Expected to Announce Measures to Ease Visas for Skilled Indian Workers

June 27, 2023 Paola Calero

According to a Reuter’s exclusive report the Biden administration is preparing to “facilitate the residence and employment of Indians in the country” by announcing new regulation that will permit “a select group of Indian and other foreign workers on H-1B visas…to renew their visas within the United States, eliminating the need to travel abroad.” The report reaffirms our previously reported news from The Department of State’s (“DOS”) February announcement introducing the prospect of launching a pilot program for H and L visa holders to renew their visas in the US, instead of having to travel abroad.

Changes Implemented at US Embassy and Consulates in India to Alleviate Visa Processing Backlogs

January 25, 2023 Paola Calero

Following the Department of State’s (“DOS”) October 2022 update on its efforts to improve visa processing backlogs that resulted due to worldwide embassy closures throughout the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its commitment to lowering visa interview wait times , the United States Mission in India has expanded its services. Beginning January 21, 2023, the US Embassy in New Delhi and Consulates in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata have opened consular operations on Saturdays to accommodate first-time visa applicants who require in-person visa interviews.

Biden Administration to Restrict Travel from India Effective May 4, 2021

May 4, 2021 Paola Calero

On April 30, 2021, President Biden issued a Presidential Proclamation which imposes COVID-19-related travel restrictions on certain individuals traveling into the US from India effective Tuesday, May 4, 2021, in an effort to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. The proclamation restricts and suspends the entry into the US of nonimmigrants and noncitizens of the US who were physically present within India during the fourteen-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States.

Nithya Swaminathan: The DLG-Proust-Actors Studio Questionnaire

July 12, 2018 Joseph McKeown

Nithya moved to the United States on a whim. While attending high school in Singapore, the day before she had to send her list of the colleges where she planned to apply to her counselor, she had one space left. She Googled “liberal arts colleges” and Swarthmore came up. “I didn’t do any research,” she says. “I just put it down—I hadn’t visited—and it was the first school I got into.” To be fair, after she was accepted, she did do a little more research, but she showed up on campus ready to start having never visited. But the decision paid off. “I loved it,” she says. “Swarthmore is really great, such a great experience. I mean, it was really stressful as well. But now when I look back, all I had to do was read books and write about books. Why did I complain about that?”

TIME: “8-Year-Old Indian Lion Actor ‘Disappointed’ After Being Denied US Visa to Attend Film Premiere”

November 15, 2016 Joseph McKeown

Joining a long list of individuals who have been denied visas for entry into the US or had problems with customs and immigration when entering the US, eight-year-old Mumbai actor Sunny Pawar has twice been denied a visa to attend the US premiere of the film Lion. Sunny plays a significant role in this film starring Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman about a lost Kolkata boy who is separated from his family and is eventually adopted by an Australian couple. The movie is based on the nonfiction book A Long Way Home by businessman Saroo Brierley, who rediscovered his childhood life and home in India as an adult in Australia.

According to the film’s distributor, the Weinstein Company, the US Consulate in Mumbai denied the visa Sunny needed to travel to America for the film’s premiere twice without offering an explanation. “We have been back and forth to the embassy many times and have not yet been able to get our Visas,” Dilap Pawar, Sunny’s father, tells TIME. The family and the Weinstein Company say they began the visa application process a month ago, and after the first interview, the family was still hopeful even though the visa had been denied. They were still hopeful at the second interview about Sunny’s chances for coming to the US to join the film’s promotional efforts and attend the premiere on November 25.

The consular officer requested an additional itinerary, stating that “we are trying are [sic] best to get you to the United States as soon as possible. Congratulations Sunny! on the success of your film.” Given the time constraints, Sunny will likely miss his chance. “It doesn’t look like we will make it in time for the Los Angeles premiere,” Pawar says in his statement. “Me and Sunny are very disappointed. I know it will bring him such joy to see the movie and see his friends from the cast. We hope we can make it there soon—we will do whatever we can.”

Sunny joins such prominent actors and individuals as Shah Rukh Khan, the “King of Bollywood,” and India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who have been either denied a visa or had trouble entering the US. Attorney David Boies, working with the Weinstein Company on this case, tells TIME in a statement: “Lion is a true story of love, inclusiveness, and human commitment unbounded by race, religion, or ethnicity. The government’s preventing the 8-year-old star of that movie from visiting this country shows how much we need to be reminded that those are our nation’s core values.”

Nicole Quenqua, head of publicity at the Weinstein company, also says of Sunny: “His performance is heart-shattering, and we want him to be a part of this. He’s never even seen his little face on the humongous movie screen or seen the reaction to his work. We’ve been promoting the film without him and it feels very incomplete.” The US Consulate in Mumbai did not respond to TIME’s request for comment.

My Immigration Story

July 21, 2016 Megana D’Aleo

Megana, a rising second year law student at Fordham University School of Law, is one of our summer associates. A merit scholarship recipient, she will serve on the Intellectual Property Law Journal this coming year, and was kind enough to share her immigration story.

Throughout my life, I’ve never really considered myself as anything but wholly American, despite my multicultural background. This is due largely to the widely different ethnic backgrounds of my parents and their families. My father is a third-generation Brooklyn Italian, while my mother is an Indian immigrant who eventually wound up in New York City. Though this background has led to some unique experiences (constantly confusing “marsala” with “masala”, for example, or the yummy treat that is naan pizza), overall I have a hard time thinking of myself as either Indian or Italian.

In This Enormous New Country

January 5, 2015 Protima Daryanani

“But he was no longer in Tollygunge. He had stepped out of it as he had stepped so many mornings out of his dreams, its reality and its particular logic rendered meaningless in the light of day. The difference was so extreme that he could not accommodate the two places together in his mind. In this enormous new country, there seemed to be nowhere for the old to reside. There was nothing to link them; he was the sole link. Here life ceased to obstruct or assault him. Here was a place where humanity was not always pushing, rushing, running as if with a fire at its back.”

- Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland

India's New Prime Minister Visits the US (After Visa Denial)

October 2, 2014 Protima Daryanani

India's recently-elected Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, visited the US arriving last week. It was a whirlwind tour featuring appearances at the United Nations, Madison Square Garden, the White House, and an impromptu stop at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park. He even co-authored (with President Obama) an op-ed for The Washington Post, where they proposed "to find mutually rewarding ways to expand our collaboration in trade, investment and technology that harmonize with India’s ambitious development agenda, while sustaining the United States as the global engine of growth." And perhaps the ultimate sign of welcome, Jon Stewart covered the visit in his own unique style.

But he wasn’t always welcome in the US with such open arms. In 2005, when Mr. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he was denied a visa to the US under regulations that denied visas to those who were believed to have committed “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” (The denial of this diplomatic visa also resulted in his visitor visa being revoked, effectively resulting in a visa ban.) The accusations arose out of claims that Mr. Modi stood by or even encouraged religious riots in which over 1000 people, mostly Muslim, were killed. Mr. Modi denied all wrong doing and was eventually cleared of all charges.

When Mr. Modi was elected as Prime Minister of India, however, he was invited to the US and granted a diplomatic visa. The Obama administration was keen to overlook the visa ban as a decision of the previous administration. During his visit to the US, Mr. Modi even made reference to his past visa difficulties, “saying he understood when fellow Indians complained of problems obtaining a visa.” Given his understanding of the visa process, we hope that he talked to President Obama about how to get more H-1B visas, which are typically used in large percentages by Indian nationals. At any rate, Mr. Modi said: "'My visit has been very successful.'"

The Daily Beast: "How the US Sold Out Indian Asylum Seekers On the Border"

August 12, 2014 Joseph McKeown

While much of the recent news from the US/Mexico border concerns the surge of unaccompanied minors from Central America--which we've discussed here and here--The Daily Beast also looks into the story of approximately seventy Sikhs from India who applied for political asylum at the border last fall. Despite passing the "credible fear" interview, which should allow them to be released to a relative while waiting for their hearing, many were detained indefinitely in the El Paso, Texas facility. Frustrated with their treatment, they organized a hunger strike (incidentally, not the only hunger strike at immigration detention centers). The Daily Beast reports:

During the first few days of the hunger strike, according to a lawyer representing some of the men, ICE agents threatened to force-feed the detainees. When that tactic failed to break the strike, the Sikhs received a visitor: a representative from the Indian consulate in Houston. According to statements from the detainees and an attorney representing some of them, N.P.S. Saini was called to convince the men to end their hunger strike, give up their asylum claims, and go home. If true, this would be a violation of American laws on amnesty, which explicitly prohibit the disclosure of any information that links an asylum seeker’s identity to the fact that they’ve applied for asylum.

John Lawit, an immigration lawyer representing six of the men, notes in the Texas Observer that El Paso is the toughest venue for asylum cases in the country (with an eighty-seven percent denial rate for asylum; the national average is fifty percent). “'I’ve been practicing there for 35 years, and it’s always been that way,' he says."