H1B visa rules tightened
Under the new administration of the United States government, it has become more and more difficult for people from foreign countries to come overseas to the country, especially for Indians.
This is because of the increasing complications surrounding the H-1B visa, which is becoming more and more difficult for both companies and individuals to obtain.
Several executive orders have been coming out from the American government, each of them adding a new layer of difficulty for obtaining the H-1B visa.
Since India is the biggest user of this visa, Indians will feel the most impact from these executive orders, because it will now be almost impossible to transition from this visa into a Green Card.
R. Chandrasekhar, the president of NASSCOM, has announced the new complications surrounding the H-1B visa.
Now, the visa will only be available for the duration that beneficiaries have to do their specified work.
Since visas with durations that are shorter than three years will now be much more common, it will be extremely hard for users of the H-1B visa to obtain a Green Card.
It will also be a challenge for immigration officers to connect the dots between qualification and work, which further complicates the obtaining of this visa.
More evidence will also have to be shown in order to obtain the H-1B visa, such as letters from the end client regarding the work assignment of the beneficiary, or simply more details in the work orders.
However, there are several consolations for this news. For one, Indian IT firms have become much less dependent on the H-1B visa.
They now use less than 20% of the 65,000 H-1B visas that are issued annually, which is a sharp drop that occurred over the past two years.
Indian IT firms now put more effort into hiring locals instead.
Also, the United States economy is lacking in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) workers, which will probably lead to these restrictions on the H-1B visa eventually being repealed.
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