H1B stamping for Indians

It has been about 2 years since I went back home. Now that I've got H1B, it is very difficult to find a slot for first time stamping and I feel homesick a lot in the recent times. I sometimes feel that it would have been better not to get the H1b lottery picked up so that at least I could have visited my family back home. If the situation in 2022 is similar, I want to go back home and find a comfortable job there with family alongside instead of having a life of visa issues and running behind money.

It has been very difficult phase since the past 2 months as I've been looking to find a single slot to get consular appointment and I'm sure that there are thousands of such people like me who want to go home and meet their family. There has been some news about visa waiver which does not have clarity for now. I still do not understand why US consulate is offering thousands of F1 visas now (profits for universities for sure) and those people get H1B after grad and this pipeline of finding a slot for visa appointment is becoming more congested.

Parents are getting older and want to meet, many lost their friends and relatives during COVID, now that there is no/less travel restriction, what needs to be done to make this visa stamping process better? Personally I was having many sleepless nights as I am constantly looking for slots on cgi portal - and there are many people like me. A group in telegram has more than 70k such people who are waiting for their regular/extension stampings.

* Do people who are in similar situation feel in this way or have any thoughts around this?
* I don't know if this is done, but what has to be done to make US embassies and USCIS realize this problem?
* Do you think Indian govt (dept. of foreign affairs) need to intervene and have something like virtual interviews or maybe some embassies in US itself?

US is a land of opportunities and for some people like me who came here, the families back home have grown from rags to riches. But at the end of the day, it is the people and relationships which are important than money in such difficult times.

I don't know what to ask here, but I want to meet my parents and be with them in these tough times.

Edit: I know that there is some news about waiving of in-person interviews for H-1B. There is not much of info on that yet and how easy does that make the process? From what I know, Appointment is still needed and don't think that would ease this problem.

#H1b #workvisa #h1b