Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the Centre was following developments in the H1-B visa matter and that her ministry would hold a meeting with industry stakeholders soon, PTI reported. Her statements follow reports that United States President Donald Trump will soon sign an executive order that will target work visa programmes like the H1-B, which are used extensively by Indians.
While acknowleding that restrictions on the work visa would impact information technology professionals in India, the minister said the meeting will be held once Parliament announces a recess from its proceedings. She stressed that restrictions on H1-B visa holders and applicants were subject to US Congress approval.
“There are several nuances to that [H1-B matter]…so I will not rush to give a view on it. Yes, there is going to be an impact. We will be holding a meeting with Nasscom and industries which have significant presence in the US. We will discuss their plans on the matter,” Sitharaman told reporters at a briefing. “We are going to have a clear exchange with them [industry stakeholders] and after that, I will be able to have a clearer picture of where the industry is,” she added.
Nasscom has said that it will send a delegation to Washington to convey its concerns and discuss the possible curbs.
Earlier, the External Affairs Ministry had said that it had conveyed India’s interests and concerns on the visa subject to the US “at senior levels”. More that three lakh Indian engineers are believed to be on H-1B visas in the US right now.
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