New Delhi: The proposed US Bill — Protect and Grow American Jobs –suggesting tweaks in H-1B visalink>,the most sought after among Indian IT professionals, may see hugedeportation and Indians would be hurt the most.
As per media reports, if the proposal gets approved, it can cause anestimated deportation of 500,000-750,000 H-1B visa holders. The Bill hasbeen passed by the House Judiciary Committee and is now headed for the USSenate.
The bill proposes new restrictions to prevent abuse and misuse of H-1B visaslink>.It tightens the definition of visa- dependent companies, and imposes freshrestrictions in terms of minimum salary and movement of talent.
Apart from prescribing higher minimum wages, the Bill places the onus onclients that they will certify that the visa holder is not displacing anexisting employee for a tenure of 5-6 years.
The Bill proposes to raise the minimum wage substantially to about USD100,000 if the company has to be exempted from the labour certificationrequirements.
The software services provider will have to notify the US authorities ifthe client has displaced a worker, an obligation that is unprecedented.
Software body Nasscom has cautioned that the Bill is riddled with “onerousconditions” and places “unprecedented obligations” on both Indian ITcompanies and clients using H-1B visaslink>.
“We do not know the exact timeline but we have been told it will come upearly 2018,” R Chandrashekhar, President, National Association for Softwareand Services Companies (Nasscom) has said.
Chandrashekhar said another “extreme concern” is that “in the name ofprotecting American jobs, this has been applied only to the so calledvisa-dependent companies that translates to Indian companies”.