By Janhvi Ahuja
After analysing for a long time, the Trump Administration, under the leadership of US President Donald Trump, has finally declared that they shall be curbing the H1-B visas for professional and skilled workers. This programme has been proven to be a long-time favourite amongst Indian tech professionals who wish to work in America, seeking better job opportunities and higher salaries.
Immigration lawyer Charles Kuck described the action as a “deliberately harmful strike” against Indian IT companies that submit most H1-B applications.
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order stating that the businesses must pay the government $100,000, which totals to around 90 lakh rupees, for each H1-B visa. Previously the fee was around $4,500 or Rs 400,000.
Indians account for around 71 per cent of all approved H1-B applications in recent years, as reported by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS. After India, China follows as the second largest group. Tech companies, ranging from newly formed start-ups to major corporations, depend on this visa to recruit skilled workers for their benefit. Many international students also rely on it to transition from temporary studies to permanent education and proper careers in the US.
With over 70% of H1-B workers being Indian, they are expected to feel the most significant impact. Sophie Alcorn, an immigration lawyer in Silicon Valley, mentioned that she believes the impact of this change is drastic, as for thousands of Indian tech workers, the proposed fee, if actually implemented, may not lead to immediate returns but would rather restrict their job mobility and make renewals expensive.
Howard Lutnick, the US Commerce Secretary, informed reporters that this action would certainly encourage more companies and firms to employ American workers. He mentioned that it would also result in sending less valuable foreign workers back to their home countries. Apart from this, Trump changed IT outsourcing companies with “systemic abuse” of the H1-B programme and labelled it as a national security threat.
A statement by the Trump administration mentions something about the lies of the issue of the H1-B visa program, which has made it extremely hard for college graduates to secure IT jobs. Due to this, employers of these corporate firms are now hiring Americans at lower costs.