Last week, a top US federal official informed lawmakers that the
Trump administration plans to scrap a critical provision that allows
spouses of H-1B visa holders to work legally in the US. The move is
expected to impact over 70,000 spouses who currently hold H-4 visas. The
clampdown—which will end an Obama administration rule that allowed
spouses to seek employment—is essentially aimed at discouraging
applicants from countries such as India and China, which account for a
majority of the 85,000 H-1B visas issued every year.
What is an H-1B visa?
H-1B
visas are a category of temporary visas issued by the US government to
corporations that hire foreign workers for so-called specialized roles
and skills. Critics of the H-1B programme have long argued it
discriminates against American workers, while proponents argue it is
essential to preserve a culture of innovation, as it allows companies to
hire talent they say is not available in the country.
How are H-1B visas issued?
First,
the company chooses workers they want to hire and then submits
petitions on their behalf. Over the past decade or two, the number of
applications have far exceeded the number of visas available and the
threshold for the number of applications has been breached within the
first five days of the application process. So, a lottery system has
been put in place by the official immigration agency in the US to
randomly choose petitions for processing.
Have companies ever misused the H-1B programme in the past?
Debatable.
Critics of the H-1B programme have long argued that companies have
deliberately hired more foreign workers at far lower salaries than what
they would have had to pay out to local American workers, adding that
the programme has contributed to an exponential increase in outsourcing
from the US. American corporations have argued that the H-1B programme
only looks to address the talent shortage in the US.
What changes has the Trump government made to the H-1B programme?
Besides
the latest moves to scrap the H-4 visa programme, the Trump
administration has also tightened the screening process for H-1B visas.
According to media reports in the US, the immigration agency in the US
is conducting more severe background checks for H-1B workers,
scrutinizing firms that hire large number of H-1B employees and has also
started delaying and denying visas to more applicants.
How do the latest changes affect Indian IT firms?
If
the H-1B programme is scrapped, it would disrupt the traditional
business model of Indian software services exporters and increase their
cost of doing business in the US. If the H-4 visa programme for spouses
is scrapped, it would also dissuade current H-1B visa holders and future
H-1B applicants from seeking long-term employment in the US.
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