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Streamlining the immigration process for Indian talent will enable the United States both to increase its own domestic capacity and more effectively counter ...

Addressing the issues in immigration policy that are affecting the United States’ ability to attract and retain skilled Indian immigrants and maintain a competitive edge over China should be a no-brainer. Canada, for example, has been attracting Indian students in droves, issuing many more visas than the United States and offering a more realistic pathway to permanent residence and citizenship. At the same time, illegal Indian immigration to the United States is increasing. And of course, since these wait times are just for interviews, they include neither the subsequent processing time for the visa to be issued, nor a guarantee that it will, in fact, be issued. Chinese students are still the largest group of international students in the United States, but their numbers have [drastically declined since the pandemic as the United States issues fewer visas](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/opinion/america-chinese-students.html) due to worries about espionage and Chinese government influence. [students from India made up the second-largest coterie (199,182) of international students, with the largest coterie (290,086) coming from China](https://www.statista.com/statistics/233880/international-students-in-the-us-by-country-of-origin/#:~:text=The%20majority%20of%20international%20students,the%202021%2F22%20school%20year.). All three routes of legal Indian immigration have important implications for the United States’ strategic competition with China. Yet one of the most important tools available to the United States to counter China through this partnership is in jeopardy: U.S. universities not only boost science research ( [they make up 74 percent of electrical engineering students and 72 percent of computer and information science students](https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/International-Students-in-Science-and-Engineering.NFAP-Policy-Brief.August-2021.pdf)), they also bring in billions of dollars in tuition, helping to defray costs for American students. Today, Indians constitute the second-largest immigrant group in the United States after Mexicans, and the highest-earning ethnic group in the country. The second is through temporary student visas that bring Indian students to study at U.S. In the last decade, India has gone from a country with which the United States had an uneasy, prickly relationship, to one of being its most important strategic and economic partners.