Sushma urges US lawmakers not to restrict H1B visa use

With the American Congress considering six Bills seeking to restrict use of H1B visas by Indian professionals, New Delhi has urged the US lawmakers to resist the move.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday conveyed to a delegation of US lawmakers the “strong concerns” of New Delhi about the moves to pass legislations seeking changes in the H1B visa regime to restrict skilled professionals from India and abroad from staying and working in America.

During a meeting with the delegation from the US House of Representatives here, the minister said India looked forward to getting “bipartisan support” in American Congress to resist such moves.

Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, posted on Twitter. The US House of Representatives has before it four Bills seeking overhaul of the H1B visa programme. Two more Bills are pending before the US Senate.

The Bills introduced by individual Representatives and Senators are nowhere close to being passed by the Congress.

The nine-member bipartisan delegation of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology is currently on a tour of India and is led by its chairman,  Lamar Smith.

The delegation earlier visited Bengaluru and had a meeting with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

India’s concerns

US President Donald Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and his vows to protect jobs for the Americans fuelled speculation that some of the policies of his administration could hit India’s Information Technology industry hard.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services on March 31 issued a guidance policy memorandum on “H1B computer related positions” by which, a petitioner seeking to sponsor a beneficiary for a computer programmer position must provide other evidence to establish the position as a specialty occupation. This made it harder for companies to use the H1B visa programme to bring foreign computer programmers into the US.

Trump on April 18 issued an Executive Order titled “Buy American and Hire American”, giving directives to various Departments that the executive branch must rigorously enforce and administer the laws governing foreign workers’ entry into the US in order to create higher wages and employment rates for the workers in America. The Executive Order also asked the US officials to suggest reforms to help ensure that H1B visas are awarded to the most-skilled or highest-paid petition beneficiaries.