Big Blow to Indian Techies

     Written by : SMTV24x7 | Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 02:19 PM

Big Blow to Indian Techies

US president Donald Trump has come up with a new policy that says H1B Visa holders cannot be hired for jobs in federal agencies. This certainly will be a big blow to Indian technology workers, who go on H1B visas to work in the USA. This new move is aimed at the upcoming elections and impress upon the local citizens. But it is the Indian aspirants who are ending up in problems with Trump's latest move!

Earlier on June 23, Trump had passed an order suspending the H-1B visas along with other types of foreign work visas until the end of 2020. The Trump administration had justified the move saying it was done to safeguard the American workers in the time of Covid-19 pandemic. The new restrictions came into effect from June 24.



The H1B visa is most sought-after among Indian IT professionals as it allows US companies to hire foreigners for jobs which require theoretical or technical expertise. Speaking to mediapersons on Monday, Trump said, "Today, I am signing an executive order to ensure that the Federal government lives by a very simple rule: Hire American".

The US president asserted that he will not tolerate sacking of American workers in the pursuit of cheap foreign labour.

Meanwhile Indian IT industry body Nasscom said that US President Donald Trump's executive order on preventing federal agencies from using H-1B visa holders appeared to be based on misinformation and misperceptions.

The order comes at a time when there is a huge shortage of STEM skills in the US which are bridged by workers on non-immigrant visas like H-1B and L-1. Unemployment rate for computer occupations (those most common amongst H-1B visa holders) declined from 3% in Jan-2020 to 2.5% in May-2020, while unemployment rate for all other occupations grew from 4.1% in Jan-2020 to 13.5% in May-2020. Further, in the 30-day period ending 13th May 2020, there were over 625,000 active job vacancy postings advertised online for jobs in common computer occupations, including those most common to H-1B visa holders, said Nasscom.