JAITLEY RAISES H1B VISA ISSUE WITH US COMMERCE SECRETARY

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has strongly raised India’s concerns over the Trump Administration’s move to tighten the H1B visa regime with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, highlighting the key role played by Indian professionals in boosting the US economy. The US President, Donald Trump, this week signed an executive order for tightening the rules of the H1B visa programme to stop its “abuse” and ensure the visas are given to the “most skilled or highest paid” petitioners. The decision is expected to hit India’s $150 billion tech industry.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has raised the government’s concerns over the Trump administration’s move to tighten the H-1B visa regime with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

US President Donald Trump this week signed an executive order for tightening the rules of the H-1B visa programme to stop its “abuse” and ensure the visas are given to the “most-skilled or highest paid” petitioners, a decision would impact India’s $150-billion information technology sector.

The sector has expressed serious concerns over the US’ move. These visas are used by domestic IT professionals for short-term work. Jaitley outlined the significant contributions skilled Indian professionals had made to the US economy and hoped US will take this aspect into consideration while taking any decision.

Ross is believed to have said that the US had started the process of reviewing H-1B visas issues and no decision has been taken on them yet, they said. And whatever the outcome of the review process, the Trump administration's objective was a merit-based immigration policy that gave preference to highly-skilled professionals.

The executive order signed by Trump calls for a review of H-1B visas by the departments of state, labour, homeland security and justice.

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialised fields. Indian IT companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year for their US operations. The US market accounts for about 60 per cent of Indian IT sector.

Jaitley, leading an Indian delegation, arrived here on Thursday to attend the annual spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Over the next two days, the Finance Minister is scheduled to hold a series of bilateral meetings with his counterparts from the US, Australia, France, Indonesia and Sweden. He is also likely to meet finance ministers from neighbouring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.