The entry-level computer programmers from India are going to bear the brunt of two latest H1-B visa guidelines as these could very well thwart the smooth road to immigrate to United States of America that used to remain till now.
What’s new in the Latest H1-B visa guidelines?
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has recently announced two new H1B-visa guidelines aimed at stopping the misuse of the same by the foreign computer programmers for coming to the United States of America. These can be specified as under:
- According to USCIS, there should not be any rampant abuse of the H1B-visa by the foreign professionals who are willing to relocate in Canada as part of the specialty employee. It stated, “The H-1B visa program should help US companies recruit highly-skilled foreign nationals when there is a shortage of qualified workers in the country. Yet, too many American workers who are as qualified, willing, and deserving to work in these fields have been ignored or unfairly disadvantaged”. In other words, they ought to be hired only in cases of crisis in that particular technical skill in the United States.
- Tom Wheeler, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division, said, “The Justice Department will not tolerate employers misusing the H-1B visa process to discriminate against US workers. US workers should not be placed in a disfavored status, and the department is wholeheartedly committed to investigating and vigorously prosecuting these claims”. In fact, this will be having the primary goal of eliminating all sorts of discrimination that were prevailing in the US till date.
After effects of the H1-B visa changes in the Indian IT market
Perturbed by this whole scenario related to H1-B visa, the shares of eminent IT companies of India such as Infosys, Wipro, Accenture and Cognizant Technology Solutions are witnessing steep decline in their shares of late.
Nasscom is hopeful that IT Professionals from India would not be impacted by latest US H1-B guidelines
However, as per Nasscom, the IT industry body of India, there won’t be any major negative impact on the Indian IT market as such although a much more measured approach towards intake of Indian software programmers by the clients of the United States of America is expected to occur due to this. These jobs require high professional qualifications, skills and experience and one has to be eligible for the US client requirements in order to get the H1-B visa.
United States has been offering H1-B visas to large number of IT Professionals
In the year 2016, United States has taken almost around 65,000 foreigners that included 20,000 international students and 13,000 computer programmers having an average salary of $72,000. The yearly issue of H1-B visa to the foreigners ranges to approximately 85,000 till now that can surely expect a downfall after the fresh H1-B guidelines.
However, according to a senior executive of an Indian IT firm, “The kind of professionals we send on H-1B visas depend on the client requirement and we do not have much say in that. USCIS will continue random and unannounced visits nationwide. These site visits are not meant to target non-immigrant employees for any kind of criminal or administrative action but rather to identify employers who are abusing the system.”