H-1B visa ban: How does it affect Indians?

US President Donald Trump has issued a proclamation to suspend issuing of H-1B visas along with other foreign work visas for the rest of the year. Trump said the step was essential to help millions of Americans who have lost their jobs due to the current economic crisis.

Here's what an H-1B visa is and how it will affect Indians:

Also read — Ban on H-1B visas to hit innovation, foreign investment: US corporate sector

What is the H-1B visa programme?

The aim of the H-1B visa program, launched in the 1990s, is to help American firms deal with labour shortages in various fields such as research, engineering, and computer programming. The non-immigrant visa allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

Indians are said to be the largest beneficiaries of the programme, getting more than 70 percent of the 65,000 H-1B visas given out annually by the United States.

How will the suspension affect India?

As of April 1, 2020, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had received about 2.5 lakh H-1B work visa applications, according to official data. Indians had applied for as many as 1.84 lakh or 67 percent of the total H-1B work visas for the current financial year ending March 2021. Therefore, the temporary ban on the H-1B visa is surely going to affect the Indian IT sector, massively.

Also read — Trump suspends H-1B, other work visas till year end

Companies like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, and Wipro Limited (WIT) provide outsourcing services to American firms for which they employ thousands of H-1B visa workers. According to rough estimates, over three-to-four lakh H-1B visa workers in the US are employed by these IT companies. The ban would severely affect Indian IT firms and their ability to complete their projects on time.

The decision will impact a large number of Indian IT professionals and several American and Indian companies who were issued H-1B visas by the US government for the fiscal year 2021 beginning October 1. They would now have to wait at least till the end of the current calendar year before approaching the US diplomatic missions to get stamping. It would also impact a large number of Indian IT professionals who are seeking renewal of their H-1B visas.

What do industry experts feel?

Industry body Nasscom on Tuesday termed the work visa suspension proclamation as "misguided" and said this could be harmful to the US economy, possibly forcing more work to be performed offshore since the local talent is not available in the country.

Also read — US proclamation to suspend work visas misguided: Nasscom

"Highly skilled non-immigrants are playing critical roles in the delivery of these services and the development of these services and products. Without their continued contributions to the US economy, the economic pain would worsen, the industry would slow, and the timeline for a treatment and cure of COVID-19 would lengthen," Nasscom said.