H1-B visa bar to hit U.S. job prospects of 1 lakh Indians

H1-B visa bar to hit U.S. job prospects of 1 lakh Indians

Washington (PTI): Nearly 1,00,000 skilled Indian workers' prospects of living the American dream may turn sour with the Congress barring firms that received bailout money from hiring foreigners through HI-B visa programme if they replace U.S. citizens.

Estimates suggest that there are 1,00,000 Indian nationals among the 1,63,000 from across the world that had applied for the skilled worker visa in FY 2009.

The U.S. has capped the H1-B visa at 65,000 a year, out of which 40,000-45,000 generally goes to Indian professionals, mostly from the IT industry.

Restricting hiring of H1-B visa holders forms part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, widely known as the stimulus Bill, that was passed by the Congress on Friday.

With thousands of jobs being cut by U.S. companies almost daily over the past few months, there have been widespread apprehensions that these positions could go to low-cost foreign workers or might be outsourced to places like India.

The government data for 2008 shows that about 5.7 lakh Indians were issued H1-B and other non-immigrant visas.

The bar comes even as IT firms in the U.S. and India are demanding an increase in the H1-B visa cap, which was cut from 1,95,000 to the present level two years ago. Indians then accounted for over 1,00,000 H1-B visas.