Bengaluru: The United State authorities decision on Tuesday to not change the rules for H-1B visa and not consider any further proposal that makes H-1B holders leave the country has brought a big smile on the faces of such visa holders.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made this announcement after the reports emerged earlier from the Trump administration that it was considering tightening the rules for H-1B Visa.
The H-1B programme offers temporary US visas that allow companies to hire highly skilled foreign professionals working in areas with shortages of qualified American workers.
Madhavi Shankar, CEO, Co-founder Spacebasic inc said, “For now, it is a definitely good thing for those who are holding H-1B visas. They have a life which is built there, especially for those who have their spouse and children. For these migrants it’s their family and livelihood that obviously raises a lot of concern. It’s like suddenly asking to leave Bengaluru after building your life for years.”
However, the US government cannot take such a drastic measure of deporting the work force. America’s economy is mostly dependent on Indian work force and that could be a bad for tech economy.
Having said that, I feel there is still fear as long as Trump administration is in power. Anything can happen. This is also a wake-up call for Indians or anybody working on H-1B visa, Madhavi added.
According to the reports, if they had implemented that rule then it would have led to the deportation of 7,50,000 Indians. This had earlier created anxiety among many Indian workers who were under H-1B visa.
R.K. Misra, urban expert said that the news is good for Indians who are already working on H-1B visa and those in the line seeking the same.
Even if the rules were changed, it would have been good for India as the country would have seen reverse brain drain as highly skilled people with good experience would be providing their services to the country.
If companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft send people to India they would be sent along with the projects as America cannot find five lakh workers to fill these posts. These companies cannot do without them. The quality of work would have increased in India and this five lakh people would have employed 10 lakh more along with them, he observed.
Siddarath Krupakar, a H-1B visa holder from Bengaluru, said, “If they had made this a rule, half of the Indians in US would have had to come back. Even the US companies here are lobbying against it.”
