High-tech industry bodies have welcomed the move to drop a hefty $3500 fee increase in the H1B visa programme, which would also benefit Indian professionals seeking jobs in the US. Hailing the move, they said the US must retain top talent from around the world to retain America's economic leadership.
Information technology professionals, one of main reasons for introduction of the H-1B visa by the US, are gradually losing out their share of the temporary visa programme to teachers and doctors, a study reveals.
The current H-1B minimum wage of USD 60,000 was established in 1989 and since then has remained unchanged.
'If companies want to hire foreign workers instead of Americans, my bill will hit them where it hurts: Their pocketbooks.'
The US Representative criticised the administration's new USD 100,000 fee on H-1B visas, observing that Indians hold 70 per cent of these visas and saying the change directly harms workers who have long supported US innovation across technology, science and medicine.
The US would start accepting petitions from Thursday for the H-1B visa applications, the most sought after work visa by Indian IT professionals, for the fiscal 2011 without any cutoff date as in the past.
Among IT services firm, Cognizant witnessed over 60 per cent of its initial applications rejected, followed by Capgemini, Accenture, Wipro, and Infosys. In 2018, the top six Indian firms got just 16 per cent or 2,145 H1B work permits.
Now, these spouses can be employed in the United States while on an H-4 visa. In many cases, these spouses will now begin working or starting their own companies
All were released on $250,000 bond, the Department of Justice said.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that it has reached the cap on Congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B work visas, the most sought after by Indian professionals.
Obama had bypassed Congress to announce most sweeping immigration reform
Taking up the case of Indian IT companies and professionals, Jaitley told Ross about the contribution of highly-skilled Indians in the economic development of the United States and India and stressed that they should continue to do so, which is in the best interest of the two countries, officials said.
Indian information-technology (IT) service providers are likely to report another quarter (July-September) of low, single-digit growth owing to macro uncertainties, chiefly emanating from America, with no respite in sight even in the second half of the year.
In less than a week of Donald Trump being sworn in as the 45th US President, the "H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act" was introduced to prioritise American workers and restore fairness in visa programmes for skilled workers.
As in the previous years, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services can issue a maximum of 65,000 H-1B visas, which is most popular among IT professionals and companies in IT services.
As per the new rule, foreigners who file to renew their EAD on or after October 30, 2025, will no longer receive an automatic extension, the DHS said in a news release.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first-ever in-person meeting with President Joe Biden raised a number of issues involving the Indian community in America, including access for Indian professionals in the US and speaking about the H-1B visas, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said.
In a statement, US Customs and Immigration Services announced that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year 2011.
Of the 65,000 H-1B visas issued by the US annually, 11,000 were lying vacant at the end of 2010.
The new rule stipulates that those who arrive on a work visa should work under the petitioner and not at a client's site.
Until May 14, the USCIS had received 19,000 petitions in the general category and 8,100 in the advanced degree category.
Extensions of H-1B visas have become even tougher, in particular if the employee has been on a bench for any part of their previous duration.
This provides for H-1B extensions beyond the 6-year limit.
US to fix the immigration system that keeps American firms from hiring the top world talent they need.
The US remains the largest market for IT outsourcing, and for Indian giants TCS, Infosys and Wipro, it contributes around 40 per cent of their top line.
With discretionary spending still under pressure, the information technology (IT) services industry continued to face an uncertain demand environment in the third quarter of 2025-26 (Q3FY26).
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha that this is an issue of concern not just for the government and the Opposition, but the entire House and the nation shares this concern
Congress should pass laws that create US jobs, not destroy them," said Marc Apter, president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA.
Two influential US Senators have renewed the campaign against the biggest users of H-1B visa workers in the US, including Indian heavyweights Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and Tata Consultancy Services. They fired off a missive to these companies asking how they employed professional and skilled workers, majority of whom hail from India.
Indian tech professionals are one of the major beneficiaries of H-1B visas.
As the United States is having a tough time in filling up its annual quota of 65,000 H-1B work visas for highly skilled categories, an official report in Washington has said that the Indian nationals accounted for the 38 per cent of the total H-1B visas issued by the United States last year.
Beth Payne, consul general, consulate general of the United States of America said, "Although we cannot predict the number, there has always been a cap on the H1B visas. The number of petitions filed every year are always more than number of H1B visas we can issue because of which we had to introduce the lottery system. I don't see any major impact on India because of the restriction."
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services on Tuesday said that the lottery was done on April 7.
As predicted the US Citizenship and Immigration Services received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year-2014 before the end of the fifth day of starting the filing.
In what could be seen as a setback to Indian IT professionals, the US Senate has voted for imposing strict conditions on hiring of people with H-1B visas by American companies receiving federal bailout money.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B visa petitions for the fiscal year 2010 from Wednesday, April 1, 2009. Read on to find out all you wanted to know about H-1B visas.
US Senators introduce legislation to cut H1B visas by 15,000.
Economic experts fear massive layoffs in various sectors of the American economy due to the current economic distress that is only going to deteriorate in the coming months. A record 3.3 million Americans have filed initial jobless claims for the week ending March 21. Even as the peak of coronavirus in the US is two weeks away, millions of people in the country have lost their jobs.
