The Trump administration is proposing to limit the duration of visas for foreign students and media personnel in the US, potentially impacting their ability to stay in the country.
IT firms in the US are struggling to find quality and right number of professionals
Trump's proposed policy limits undergraduates from any one country to 5% at select top US universities, raising concerns for Indian aspirants eyeing elite colleges.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained net sellers of Indian equities in September, withdrawing Rs 23,885 crore (around $2.7 billion) and taking year-to-date outflow to Rs 1.58 lakh crore ($17.6 billion).
According to the latest figure update by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, approximately 46,700 of the H-1B visas in the general category were filled up by September 25; against a Congressional mandated figure of 65,000.
India is taking up with the United States the issue of reduction of H1B visas for specialised workers, as it would affect movement of Indian software professionals to that country, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has said that the curbs on how many foreign workers US tech firms can bring into the United States should be done away with, according to news reports.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the measures to enforce the provisions of the new Employ American Workers Act (EAWA) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which prohibits hiring of H-1B visa holders by American companies who receive the federal aid money.
Amid Trump's expected action against employment visas, India's bellwether IT firms reveal they have been preparing for this eventuality for years.
The Bill would impact only Indian companies.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that it has received sufficient number of applications to reach the mandated cap of 65,000 for working professionals for the fiscal ending September 30, 2010.
The mandated Congressional cap is of 65,000.
In a move that is expected to hit Indian IT companies, the US government has decided to hike H-1B visa fee from next fiscal.
This is not a new rule, but very few people know about it.
Rubio voiced "appreciation" for New Delhi's continued engagement on bilateral issues, including trade, defence and energy.
The Congress on its Twitter handle also criticised Modi's US visit.
Trading sentiment in the equity market will be guided by macroeconomic data announcements, global trends and quarterly earnings from IT major TCS this week, analysts said. Stock markets would also be tracking trading activity of foreign investors who remained net sellers of Indian equities in September.
The bill will attempt to toughen the H-1B visa program.
Indian IT workers are paid considerably less than their American counterparts who have similar qualifications, making the H-1B visa programme "deeply flawed", according to a study.
Continued presence of such a problematic provision in the bill, which was passed by a key Senate panel on Tuesday, industry sources said would not only badly hit Indian IT companies, but also disrupt operational capabilities of a large number of key American companies as well.
An ongoing federal probe into H-1B visa fraud leads to 11 arrests and the indictment of IT services firm Vision Systems Group
US federal authorities have claimed to have unearthed a major H-1B visa racket with the arrest of at least 11 persons, most of them suspected to be of Indian origin.
'Skilled labour is different from immigration.' 'While any adverse immigration ruling will impact Indians, it may not necessarily affect the IT services industry.'
In June, Disney had laid off about 250 employees.
Since early December 2008, Sreehari Gopalakrishnan has applied to 176 firms, and the rate of call back has steadily declined. "Earlier, it used to be from 20 to 30 places but now it is less than 10 per cent", says Gopalakrishnan, an analyst with a firm in Connecticut that does relocation management. With the current economic downturn and the housing slump, his company has several houses in its inventory worth millions of dollars.
The US Senate has approved a landmark immigration reform bill that would give citizenship to millions of illegal persons and double the number of H1-B visas from the present 65,000
Two US lawmakers have asked nine foreign-based firms, including some leading Indian companies that used 20,000 of such visas, to disclose details about their workforce and their use of the special programme.
This is the first time that the cap is reached on the first day of receiving the applications on April 2.
India has implemented a number of free trade agreements with developed nations and is in active dialogue for such pacts with nations including the US, Oman, and the EU, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said. India has implemented trade pacts with Australia, the UAE and EFTA bloc. It has also signed an agreement with the UK.
This measure to double the number of temporary visas to H-1B skilled-workers to 115,000 -- with an option of raising the cap 20 per cent more each year -- was buried in the Senate's giant 300-page Immigration Bill that got approved 12-6 on Tuesday.
Proposals to allow more high-technology foreign workers into the US are gaining ground in Congress despite assertions by labour and anti- immigrant lobbies that plenty of Americans are available to fill the jobs.
'The battle for brain power among Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla and newer AI companies is fierce.' 'Given the race for AI with China, these companies will find it hard pressed to fill that talent gap,' notes an IT professional based in the US.
Applications for H-1B work visa for the fiscal year 2013 would be accepted from April 2.
The Indian team has returned from the US after holding trade talks with their American counterparts in New York, an official said on Thursday. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who led the team, will be back on Friday.
US H1-B visa cap reached within 5 days for 3rd straight year.
Sikka said since more and more of the work is now becoming automated, the Indian IT companies need to focus much more on the innovative areas and on the new areas.
