More Trouble For H-1B? Trump’s Revised VISA Policy May Hit Indians Aspiring To Work In The US

United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved a move which is feared to give more leeway to US citizenship and immigration services (CIS) in deciding who can work in America, Times of India has reported.

The OMB has approved a proposal through which companies hiring foreign workers in the US through H-1B visas, from April onwards, will have to pre-register electronically for the annual H-1B lottery and then file petitions (full-fledged applications) for the winners.

In the current system, entry into the lottery can only be secured by filing petitions upfront along with all the supporting evidence. The documentation process in the current system is quite exhaustive for employers.

Therefore, this move will result in significant savings for companies hiring foreign employees.

However, the move, under the anti-immigration regime of Donald Trump may provide more leeway to CIS, the immigration arm of the US government, in determining who can or cannot work in the US.

A total of 65,000 H-1B visas are currently allotted by the US government under the regular cap or general quota while 20,000 additional visas are allotted under the master’s cap for those having an advanced degree from US universities.

Indians constitute a majority of the beneficiaries of the H-1B visas with more than 60 per cent of these visas being garnered by them.