H-1B visa rules News

The Administration of President Donald Trump has unveiled a tightening of rules for immigration visas used widely by technology firms, claiming the new system would be better for American workers. The move to cut back H-1B visas for foreign skilled workers and tighten wage-based entry barriers citing "data" that more than 500,000 Americans have lost their jobs because of "H1B non-immigrants" is likely to affect the Indian techies the most. India and China account for the lion`s share of H-1B visas. As per US government data, India accounts for upwards of 70 per cent, most years.

The H1-B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows the US firms to hire highly skilled foreign professionals working in areas with shortages of qualified American workers.

The US Labour Department has said a legislative change is required in the four-tiered wage structure to take stronger action against firms using H-1B visas to replace their American employees with workers from countries like India.

India on Thursday said it was keeping a "close watch" on the US tightening the H-1B visa rules which will impact Indian IT industry and professionals, and asserted that the issue will be taken up with the Trump administration.

Amid reports of a US government probe of two top Indian IT companies for possible violations of H-1B visa rules, Disney ABC TV has cancelled plans to outsource IT jobs, according to a media report