US President Trump has passed executive order “Buy American, Hire American” followed by reforms to the HIB visa program.
What’s an H-1B visa?
The H1B visa allows companies to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialty occupations including fields like science, engineering, and information technology. Workers are usually required to have the highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specialty or its equivalent. The visas last for three years at a time. Most of the Indian tech companies hire people through this process and these workers are paid somewhere around $65,000 to $75,000 a year, far less than the $100,000 or more by the US companies. Nearly 70% of all H-1B visas go to Indian workers.
The H1B visa allows companies to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialty occupations including fields like science, engineering, and information technology. Workers are usually required to have the highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specialty or its equivalent. The visas last for three years at a time. Most of the Indian tech companies hire people through this process and these workers are paid somewhere around $65,000 to $75,000 a year, far less than the $100,000 or more by the US companies. Nearly 70% of all H-1B visas go to Indian workers.
How will Trump’s “Hire American” executive order change the program?
The executive order Buy American and Hire American will not affect the H1B program.s, which is weighted toward low-wage workers, toward a system that favors higher-skilled, higher-paid workers, like those with master’s degrees.
Some of the proposed changes are:
•Doubling minimum salaries of H-1B visa holders to $130,000
•Earmark 20% of H-1B visas for small and start-up employers
•Remove ‘per country’ cap for employment visas to ensure equal distribution
•Firms hiring H-1B visa holders need to make a “good faith” effort to recruit Americans first
•Give preference to students educated in the US for H-1B visas rather than computerized lottery system
•Crack down on outsourcing companies that import workers for temporary training and then send them back home to do the same job
•Prohibit spouses of H-1B visa holders from working in the US
•Prohibit companies with more than 50 employees, of which at least half are H-1B or L-1 holders, from hiring additional H-1B employees
•Strict audit and vetting by Department of Labor to clamp down on fraud or misuse
Conclusion:
Let us wait for further development
