Donald Trump announces new US H-1B visa rules, Indian techies likely to be hit

New York: The United States Administration of President Donald Trump has introduced a tightening of guidelines for immigration visas used extensively by the expertise corporations, claiming the ”new system could be higher for American staff”.

The Department of Homeland Security introduced on Tuesday the brand new rules for so-called H-1B visas for extremely expert staff, which permit as much as 85,000 immigrants yearly.

The transfer to chop again H-1B visas for international expert staff and tighten wage-based entry obstacles citing “data” that greater than 500,000 Americans have misplaced their jobs due to “H1B non-immigrants” is more likely to have an effect on the Indian techies essentially the most.

India and China account for the lion`s share of H-1B visas. As per US authorities information, India accounts for upwards of 70 per cent, most years. In a name with reporters, Acting Deputy DHS Secretary Ken Cuccinelli mentioned about one-third of the individuals who have utilized for H-1B visas could be denied underneath the brand new guidelines.

With Trump laid up with COVID-19, his ballot numbers tanking and fewer than 30 days to go earlier than the US election, the timing of the H1B visa hammering is enterprise as normal for international staff.

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“It would have been a surprise if this hadn`t happened,” an H1B employee on-site at JP Morgan in New York City mentioned. The employee requested to not be named. The wage requirement shall be a “gamechanger” in favour of the Trump administration, this employee mentioned.

Many H1B staff expressed a model of the identical sentiment. They`ve seen this film earlier than. It`s Trump`s all-base, on a regular basis anthem to fireplace up his most vocal supporters, they mentioned.

The newest blow comes because the geese line up throughout a number of departments that coordinate and monitor the crisscrossing parts of international employee visas: US Department of Labor (DoL), US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The Department of Labor`s revisions to minimal wage necessities take impact Thursday and DHS` H1B revisions will hit house in 60 days.

“When seeking to employ an H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 visa, US employers must attest that they will pay non-immigrant workers, during the period of authorized employment, the higher of the prevailing wage or the actual wage paid to other employees with similar experience and qualifications,” US Department of Labour introduced.

The gaslighting of the “low costa H1B pay cheque is a well-worn anthem and has become louder in the Trump years. The word “undercut” was used a number of instances on Tuesday in a spherical robin of easily co-ordinated press-releases and telephonic briefings throughout DoL and DHS.

The DOL rule will increase the 4 wage tiers for workers on H1Bs and different skilled visas, which presently start on the 17th percentiles for every business, to the 45th percentile.

“Under the existing wage levels, artificially low prevailing wages provide an opportunity for employers to hire and retain foreign workers at wages well below what their US counterparts – meaning US workers in the same labor market, performing similar jobs, and possessing similar levels of education, experience, and responsibility – make, creating an incentive – entirely at odds with the statutory scheme – to prefer foreign workers to US workers, and causing downward pressure on the wages of the domestic workforce,” reads an excerpt from the DoL interim closing rule.

The Department can also be tightening the screws on the definition of “specialty occupation” to make it align with what it calls the “verbatim” description.

In parallel, DHS will slender the definition of “specialty occupation”, require firms to make “real” gives to “real employees,” and turbocharge its personal capacity to make sure compliance “before, during, and after an H1-B petition is approved”.

“Data shows that the more than a half-million H-1B non-immigrants in the United States have been used to displace US workers,” learn a press release from the Department of Homeland Security.

(With Agency Inputs)