India has conveyed H1B visa concerns to US: External Affairs Ministry

New Delhi: India has conveyed the concerns and impact of stringent H1B visas norms on Indian companies to the US administration and Congress, Vikas Swarup, Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs said on Tuesday.

"India’s interests and concerns( on H1 B) have been conveyed both to the US administration and US Congress at senior levels", tweeted Vikas Swarup.

India’s interests & concerns have been conveyed both to the US administration and US Congress at senior levels: Vikas Swarup,MEA on H1B visa pic.twitter.com/nWRXx6DOBB — ANI (@ANI_news) January 31, 2017

A legislation has been introduced in the US House of Representatives which among other things calls for more than doubling the minimum salary of H-1B visa holders to USD 130,000, making it difficult for firms to use the programme to replace American employees with foreign workers, including from India. 

The bill among other things would crack down on outsourcing companies that import large numbers of H-1B and L-1 workers for temporary training purposes only to send the workers back to their home countries to do the same job.

The High-Skilled Integrity and Fairness Act of 2017 introduced by California Congressman Zoe Lofgren prioritises market based allocation of visas to those companies willing to pay 200 perent of a wage calculated by survey, eliminates the category of lowest pay, and raises the salary level at which H-1B dependent employer are exempt from non displacement and recruitment attestation requirements to greater than USD 130,000.

This is more than double of the current H-1B minimum wage of USD 60,000 which was established in 1989 and since then has remained unchanged.

"My legislation refocuses the H-1B programme to its original intent to seek out and find the best and brightest from around the world, and to supplement the US workforce with talented, highly-paid, and highly-skilled workers who help create jobs here in America, not replace them," said Lofgren.

With PTI inputs