In a major relief to Indian IT professionals and big win for Modi’s Diplomacy, the Donlad Trump administration has announced it was not considering any proposal that could force deportation of thousands of H-1B visa holders by denying them extensions beyond the maximum permissible period of six years, as they waited for permanent residency. reported the Hindustan Times on Tuesday.
According to several reports, there are over 5 lakh Indian techies who are working in the US on H-1B visa. Of them, nearly 40 per cent visa holders are waiting for their green card process to conclude.
“…USCIS is not considering a regulatory change that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the United States by changing our interpretation of section 104(c) of AC-21, which provides for H-1B extensions beyond the 6 year limit. Even if it were, such a change would not likely result in these H-1B visa holders having to leave the United States because employers could request extensions in one-year increments under section 106(a)-(b) of AC21 instead,” Jonathan Withington, Chief of Media Relations at US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), told the newspaper.
The Hindustan Times quoted Withington as saying, “the agency is considering a number of policy and regulatory changes to carry out the President’s Buy American, Hire American Executive Order, including a thorough review of employment based visa programs.”
At present, the H-1B programme offers temporary US visas that allow companies to hire highly skilled foreign professionals working in areas with shortages of qualified American workers.
The US is currently facing a skills gap of over six million jobs, and companies are struggling to find talent to fill these open positions, Indian American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi has said.
Earlier, the Economic Times had reported that American tech giants such as Google and IBM were likely to be affected by the Trump administration’s new proposed rules. These firms also employ workers on H-1B visas, some of whom have been awaiting Green Cards for over a decade. These companies were ready to file suits against the US government to protect their employees, most of whom are mid-level or senior managers.
According to Nasscom, the use of visas by Indian IT firms has fallen by 50 per cent in the last two years and that the number now stands below 10,000 (of the 85,000 H-1B visas issued annually).
To brace against the impact, Indians IT firms have also been ramping up local recruitments and training manpower in the US.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had raised the issue of H1-B visawith US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in October last year and requested him not to take action that might adversely affect Indians.
Meanwhile, the Narendra Modi government is yet to officially react as it has been watching the US administration’s previously announced plans to tighten H-1B rules so that American workers can get the job instead of the lower-paid foreigners.
