Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said India had reached out to the United States administration to convince against imposing curbs on H1-B visa. The importance of India’s $150-billion information technology services industry in the US needs to be stressed, Sitharaman told Reuters.
“India’s investments in the United States have provided jobs to US citizens,” she said in an interview with the news agency. This government’s move comes two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the US Congressional delegation visiting New Delhi for a “reflective, balanced and farsighted perspective on movement of skilled professionals”, the PMO said.
Currently, a delegation of chief executives of some of India’s biggest IT companies is in the US lobbying lawmakers and companies to let its skilled workers in the country. “Our engagement at every level is intact and continuing,” Sitharaman said.
Last month it was reported that the High-Skilled Integrity and Fairness Act 2017, was introduced in the House of Representatives. The Act proposes to increase the minimum wage for H1-B visa holders from $60,000 (Rs 40.7 lakh) to $130,000 (Rs 88 lakh), making it more expensive for IT firms to hire professionals from outside of the US. The US is also likely to impose curbs on immigration that will impact the hiring of Indians.
Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and several other IT companies seek a considerable number of H-1B visas to send Indian workers to the US. More that three lakh Indian engineers are believed to be on H-1B visas in the US.
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