Techies suspend plan for holiday at home

Techies from India who are working in the US in India's $150 billion Information Technology sector, are worried about their future as the US Congress debates a bill that might affect the H1B visas on which they entered the US.

M Madhava Kumar from Serilingampally, who is settled in the US, said that the bill introduced in the House to protect American workers, will have an impact on techies in the H1 and L1 visa category. "In the past one year, due to the speculations and deporting of a few cases of H1B holders who visited India, many techies are not daring to travel to India," he said.

Prominent travel agencies say that as many as 9,000 passengers to and from the US have cancelled their air tickets since January 2016. The forums maintained by Indians in the US in all the states are discussing what will be the future of H1B holders.

Kaushik Koka who works at the tech giant Oracle said that move of President Trump would be keen to outsource to countries like India which will end up cheaper. ????

Ch. Hasya, a techie from Madhapur, said that all the predictions and speculations is creating panic among software professionals. Hardly have they absorbed the news about the H1B visa, than there is now another alert spreading on social media about the form I-407.

"The alert consists of this text: 'If anyone you know is coming back from the United States, tell them not to sign the form called I-407. This form strips you of your residency.' While the bill introduced in the House is creating panic among H1B and L1 visa holders, the latest alert indicates that the US government is targeting Green Card holders," she said.