Bill on H-1B visa gives sleepless nights to Indian techies in US

The bill, which is aligned to Trump's “Buy American, Hire American” initiative, proposes to prevent misuse of H-1B visa. “Buy American, Hire American” vision that was promised by the President during his 2016 campaign, aims to protect local jobs for the Americans.

The bill has been passed by the House Judiciary Committee and is now headed for the US Senate. Image source: PTI

With the proposed US Bill, Protect and Grow American Jobs, India may see more than 500,000 of its skilled tech work force that use H-1B visas coming back home from America.

As per media reports, the Department of Homeland Security is considering new regulations that would prevent the extension of H-1B visa of those waiting for permanent residency (Green Card) is implemented.

The bill, which is aligned to Trump's “Buy American, Hire American” initiative, proposes to prevent misuse of H-1B visa. “Buy American, Hire American” vision that was promised by the President during his 2016 campaign, aims to protect local jobs for the Americans.

If the proposed bill gets approved, it can cause a huge number of deportation of H-1B visa holders. And once the implementation of the bill starts, approximately 500,000-750,000 H-1B visa holders will be impacted.

The bill has been passed by the House Judiciary Committee and is now headed for the US Senate.

Under current law, foreign guest workers are allowed a three-year extension of the H-1B visa of three-year validity. If at the end of those six years the guest worker has a pending Green Card (Permanent Residency) application, then there is an almost indefinite extension of the H-1B visa till such time the applicant's Green Card processing is completed, reports ET.

Hundreds of thousands of workers, particularly from India and China, spend around 10-12 years in US while their Green Card is under process.

Presently, the Trump administration is trying to end such process. The H-1B visa holder, who has applied for the Green card, has to leave the country at the end of sixth year till the Green Card gets processed.

Software body 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, as per Business Standard report.

The idea of the bill is to create a self-deportation of hundreds of thousands of Indian tech workers in the US so that the jobs are readily available for the Americans.