Trump administration's H-1B visa norms changes to hit 5 lakh Indian workers in US | Over 1.5 Million Indians to be Affected by Trump Admin's H-1B Visa Rule Tweak | US President Donald Trump's poll promise to "Buy American, Hire American"

Trump administration's H-1B visa norms changes to hit 5 lakh Indian workers in US

January 5, 2018  | 10:18 IST 

 

US President Donald Trump's poll promise to "Buy American, Hire American" may force lakhs of Indian techies out of the United States. Trump administrations new proposal to not extend H-1B visa of those waiting for permanent residency or green card is likely to affect more than 5 lakh Indians working in the US.


The proposal, circulated in the form of internal memo by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), seeks to end the provision of allowing extensions to H-1B visa holders whose applications for green card had been accepted. US President Donald Trump had earlier promised to protect jobs for American workers.
Under the existing laws in the US, an outside worker having an H-1B visa can remain in the US for up to six years. It is initially for three years but can be extended for additional three years. A person having a pending permanent residency application gets indefinite extension of the H-1B visa until the applicant's Green Card processing is completed.

Under the new proposal, a foreign worker will have to exit United States until the processing of Green Card application is complete. The move could directly stop hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from keeping their H-1B visas while their green card applications are pending.
The new regulations are aimed at preventing the extension of H-1B visas, predominantly used by Indian IT professionals.

The proposal which is being shared between the Department of Homeland Security Department (DHS) heads is part of Trump's "Buy American, Hire American" initiative promised during the 2016 campaign, US-based news agency McClatchy's DC Bureau reported.
It aims to impose new restrictions to prevent abuse and misuse of H-1B visas, besides ending the provision of granting extension for those who already have a green card.

"The act currently allows the administration to extend the H-1B visas for thousands of immigrants, predominantly Indian immigrants, beyond the allowed two three-year terms if a green card is pending," the report said.
"The idea is to create a sort of 'self- deportation' of hundreds of thousands of Indian tech workers in the United States to open up those jobs for Americans," it said, quoting a source briefed by Homeland Security officials.

"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 programmes," said Jonathan Withington, chief of media relations for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occuptions that require theoretical or technical expertise.
It is typically issued for three to six years to employers to hire a foreign worker. But H-1B holders who have begun the green card process can often renew their work visas indefinitely.
The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
The proposed changes would have a dramatic effect particularly on Indian visa holders considering more than half of all H-1B visas have been awarded to Indian nationals, the report said, quoting the Pew Research Center report.

"This would be a major catastrophic development as many people have been waiting in line for green cards for over a decade, have US citizen children, own a home," said Leon Fresco, who served as a deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department in the Obama administration who now represent H-1B workers.
Fresco estimates more than 1 million H1-B visa holders in the country are waiting for green cards, many of whom are from India and have been waiting for more than a decade.

Software body Nasscom has cautioned against the proposed US Bill - Protect and Grow American Jobs. Nasscom said it is riddled with "onerous conditions" and places "unprecedented obligations" on both Indian IT companies and clients using H-1B visas.
Nasscom said it has flagged its concerns around visa-related issues in the US with the Senators, Congressmen and the administration, and will engage further in a dialogue over the next few weeks over the proposed legislation.
The bill proposes new restrictions to prevent abuse and misuse of H-1B visas. It tightens the definition of visa-dependent companies, and imposes fresh restrictions in terms of minimum salary and movement of talent.
Apart from prescribing higher minimum wages, the Bill places the onus on clients that they will certify that the visa holder is not displacing an existing employee for a tenure of 5-6 years.

"That formulation has conditions which are extremely onerous and makes it very difficult for people to not just get the visa but also on how they can be used," R Chandrashekhar, President, National Association for Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said.
The Bill has been passed by the House Judiciary Committee and is now headed for the US Senate.
"We do not know the exact timeline but we have been told it will come up early 2018," he said.
Chandrashekhar said another "extreme concern" is that "in the name of protecting American jobs, this has been applied only to the so called visa-dependent companies that translates to Indian companies".

"There is no doubt we have been seeing an increasingly negative environment and this is a part of the protectionist, anti-globalisation trend," he said referring to a slew of measures taken by the US in the recent past, including increased visa scrutiny, premium visa processing being put on hold for a few months etc.
Chandrashekhar also pointed out that 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.

"It is below 10,000, which is a minuscule fraction of 85,000 visas (H-1B visas) issued every year... how such onerous restrictions on 12-15 per cent of the visas that are being issued protect American workers, certainly defies logic," he said.
Chandrashekhar explained that the Bill proposes to raise the minimum wage substantially to about USD 100,000 if the company has to be exempted from the labour certification requirements.

Also, the client deploying the H-1B visa worker will have to certify that no American worker will be displaced for the 5-6 year period.
Further, the software services provider will have to notify the US authorities if the client has displaced a worker, an obligation that is unprecedented, he said.
Chandrashekhar added that many of these changes were "emotive and political" rather than being based on "economic arguments".
He said that Nasscom has shared its concerns with both Indian and the US governments.

"...We will probably be having further interaction in next few months. In next couple of months, we expect to have interactions once again with the US authorities," he added.
with PTI inputs

Over 1.5 Million Indians to be Affected by Trump Admin's H-1B Visa Rule Tweak

The H-1B visa issue has been a cause of concern for New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have expressed concern to their counterparts, including US President Donald Trump.

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering new regulations that would prevent foreign workers from getting H-1B visa extensions while their green card applications are pending.

“This change will be catastrophic for Indian American community. There are over 750,000 H-1B primary applicants stuck in green card backlogs that span many decades. We estimate that there are around 800,000 dependants (spouses and children) of Indian origin who will be directly impacted if Department of Homeland Security gets rid of H1B visa extension beyond 6th year,” on official of an immigration firm in the US told News18.

As many as 1.5 million Indians (which includes spouses and children) living in the US are expected to be affected by the new regulations. “This could result in mass exodus of Indians from the US, which would be unprecedented in US history,” the official added.

The H-1B visa issue has been a cause of concern for New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have expressed concern to their counterparts, including US President Donald Trump.

While officials at US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is under DHS, said they couldn’t discuss “any part of the pre-decisional processes”, Jonathan Withington, chief of media relations for USCIS, was quoted as saying that “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 programmes.”

The H-1B visa is issued for three to six years to employers to hire a foreign worker. But H-1B holders who have begun the green card process can often renew their work visas indefinitely.

The proposed changes would have a dramatic effect, particularly on Indian visa holders, since over half of all H-1B visas have been awarded to Indian nationals, according to the Pew Research Center. Estimates suggest that over 1 million H-1B visa holders are waiting for green cards, many of whom are from India and have been waiting for over a decade.

“At the core of this issue is 7% per country limits on Employment-Based (merit-based) green card system, meaning no country can get more than 7% green cards in a year.

There is no per-country limit on visas like H-1B or L-1 visas, and companies tend to hire over 70% individuals of 85,000 visas from India every year,” the official at the immigration firm.

• Department of Homeland Security
• donald trump
• H-1B visa
• prime minister narendra modi

Tags:  H1b visa | Donald Trump | H 1B visa changes | Indians workers | jobs | US | IT sector | H-1B visa | Trump administrations | India | China | Indians | United States | DHS | extension | Department of Homeland Security | Nasscom | R Chandrashekhar