H-1B visa: India requests US not to take any adverse action

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj once again on Wednesday raised India's concerns over H-1B visa regulations with visiting US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. "Discussed H-1B visa issue and requested US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson not to take action that may adversely impact Indians," Swaraj said.

The foreign minister also reiterated that she has been following up on the issue regularly with the US authorities -- in October when a US congressional delegation from the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology was visiting, in September during a meeting with Tillerson on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Session, and once again on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley too during his visit to the US last month had raised India's concerns over possible tightening of the issuance of H-1B visas.

"There has been no change yet. There are proposals. Efforts are on to ensure the bill doesn't get passed in the Congress," Swaraj said after her meeting with Tillerson in New Delhi on Wednesday.

To recap, US President Donald Trump had called for stricter norms in issuing H-1B visas. This is likely to affect Indian IT firms adversely that send a large number of their employees to work 'onsite' in the US. Indian nationals make up for nearly two-thirds of H-1B visa applicants across the world. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations.

Although, Trump has spoken about restricting H-1B visas+ as part of his policy of giving priority to Americans, thus far there have been no changes to the visa regime, and the existing levels of 65,000 for general H-1B visas and 20,000 for those with advanced US degrees have been maintained for the year.

However, a private member's bill was introduced earlier in the year in the US Congress by Democrat Zoe Lofgren which seeks to increase the minimum salary of an H-1B visa holder to $130,000 from the current minimum of $60,000.