A total of 579 Indians without valid visa were detected in and deported from the United States to India since 2014, according to the records of the ministry of external affairs.
The number indicates a rise compared to previous years, when the such cases were much rarer.
Many Indians choose to overstay their visas in the US, after landing in the country on tourist or temporary work visas.
The exact number of Indians staying in the United States without proper documents is not clear, but the number is likely to be in the hundreds of thousands.
According to the Pew Research Center, India was one of the top four countries supplying illegal immigrants to the country, accounting for 5% of the total estimated illegal immigrant population of 11 mln there.
The agency, one of the biggest socio-political agencies engaged in primary research in the world, estimates that there were an estimated 5 lakh Indians staying illegally in the United States in 2014.
‘Illegals’ comprise over 3% of the population of the United States. In other words, out of the 100 people you see on the street in the United States, 3 are likely to be there without papers.
According to Pew Research center, India is the only non-Latin American country to provide so many illegal residents to the USA, and the number has risen very sharply in recent years.
The agency estimates that there were only 30,000 such people from India in 1990, and the number is estimated to have increased to 500,000 by 2014. In comparison, China accounted for only around 325,000 in 2014.
The sharp increase in overstaying by Indians has resulted in higher levels of scrutiny of visa applicants in US missions in India. A US visa is among the most difficult to get, largely due to the attraction of the country as a viable place for illegal habitation. An estimated 5% of the workforce in the country is estimated to be illegal immigrants.