Tech company leaders joined top politicians to help celebrate the official opening of India’s new consulate in Seattle on Tuesday.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, and Sen. Maria Cantwell joined Vinay Kwatra, the ambassador of India to the U.S., at a ribbon-cutting event.
The consulate is taking two floors at the Federal Reserve Building in downtown Seattle. It initially opened a temporary office in late 2023.
Prakash Gupta, consulate general of India for the new hub, told GeekWire in 2023 that he hoped the consulate would serve as a resource for tech companies, investors, and workers in both Seattle and India.
The Seattle area has one of the highest Asian Indian populations in the U.S., and India is ranked as the No. 1 country of birth for immigrants residing in King County.
- More than 40% of foreign-born IT workers in the Seattle area hail from India, the Seattle Times reported in 2018.
- The Asian community is the single largest racial and ethnic minority group within Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, and more than 65% identify as South Asian, according to the company’s latest diversity report.
The consulate in Seattle is opening amid recent U.S. immigration crackdowns.
Many tech workers from India use H-1B visas. Seattle-based Amazon ranked No. 1 in the tech sector for H-1B visa approvals last year at 14,764, while Microsoft secured 4,725 of the visas.
The consulate, India’s sixth in the U.S., recently hosted the first India Day Parade in Seattle, and flew India’s flag atop the Space Needle. It has provided consular services to more than 23,000 applicants from its jurisdiction area, which spans the Pacific Northwest as well as North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska.
Related:
- Immigration crackdown rattles tech employers and workers amid ICE raids
- ‘Take things into your control’: Tips for immigrant entrepreneurs navigating the U.S. visa process
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