Amid the reports that the United States is mulling on restricting the H-1B visas for countries that are forcing foreign companies to store data locally, the Trump administration on Thursday (20 June) said that it has no plans to cap the H-1B visas for nations with the data storage requirement.

Earlier, on Wednesday (19 June), US had reportedly told India it was considering restricting the H-1B visa programmes, under which skilled foreign workers are brought to US each year, for nations that force foreign companies to store their data locally, Economic Times has reported.

“The Trump Administration has no plans to place caps on H-1B work visas for nations that force foreign companies to store data locally,” a US State Department spokeswoman said in a statement, as reported by Reuters.

According to the report, the spokeswoman said that while Trump administration’s “Buy American Hire American” executive order calls for a broad review of US worker visa programmes, including the H-1B program, it was not targeted at a specific country.

She added that it is completely separate from the ongoing discussions with India about the importance of ensuring the free flow of data across borders.

As per the report, there is no country-specific limit on the 85,000 H-1B work visas issued by the US every year, of which an estimated 70 per cent go to the Indians.