US brushes aside India's repeated pleas on H-1B visas, despite Modi-Trump bonhomie, restricts charter flights

The United States brushed aside New Delhi’s repeated pleas and went ahead to suspend issuing of the H-1B and other work visas for the rest of the year – notwithstanding the bonhomie between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Trump Administration’s decision will hit hard both the Indian Information Technology (IT) companies and the professionals seeking to move to the US on H-1B visas. The US also imposed restrictions on charter flights from India, accusing New Delhi of engaging in “discriminatory and restrictive practices”.

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The twin moves came just weeks after the US launched an investigation into the new two per cent tax India recently imposed on all foreign billings for digital services provided in the country. The US earlier in June 2019 even withdrew the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) trade privilege, which had been granted to India in 1976.

New Delhi has been asking the Trump Administration to refrain from making any change to the H-1B visa regime in view of the contribution of the Indian Information Technology (IT) professionals in adding to the competitiveness of the US economy. It particularly underlined during recent engagements with the American Government that the high-skilled professionals from India played a key role in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis in the United States.

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The US, however, went ahead, suspended the issue of the H-1B and other work visas till December 31 and thus made the future uncertain for a large number of Indian Information Technology (IT) professionals, who were issued the H-1B visas by the American Government for the fiscal year 2021 beginning October 1 and were preparing to move to the US. It will also land in soup the Indian IT professionals seeking renewals of the H-1B visas issued to them.

Indian professionals received 70% of around 85000 H-1B visas the US issued annually over the past few years.

During the meeting between the two leaders in New Delhi on February 25, Modi had subtly nudged Trump to refrain from making changes in the H-1B visa regime and thus from putting the Indian IT professionals in trouble. He had underlined that the India-America relations had all along been driven by people, including the Indian professionals working in the US and they should not be inconvenienced.

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Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and his administration’s moves to protect the US jobs from high-skilled professionals from other countries, including India, has been an irritant in bilateral relations since he took office in January 2017. Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Buy American and Hire American” on April 18, 2017, which required different arms of the US Administration to suggest reforms to the H-1B visa programme. New Delhi has also been urging the US lawmakers to resist any legislative move in the American Congress to change or scrap the H-1B visa programme.

Sushma Swaraj, who was then External Affairs Minister, had in September 2018 cited the friendship between the Prime Minister and the American President to request her counterpart Mike Pompeo not to make any move on the H-1B visa regime that could put Indian IT professionals in the US in trouble.

The Modi-Trump friendship had been on public display during “Howdy! Modi” event in Houston in September 2019 and its sequel “Namaste Trump” rally in Ahmedabad in February 2020. The Trump Administration, however, still went ahead and suspended the H-1B and other work visa programmes till December 31, without paying any heed to New Delhi’s argument that high-skilled Indian professionals working in America bridged the crucial skill gap and provided technological and competitive edge to the US companies.