US ‘update’ on H-1B changes includes plan to end work permits for spouses
WASHINGTON: US agency that oversees H-1B work visas popular with Indians has reiterated its resolve to strengthen the integrity of the programme to protect American interests as has been directed by President Donald Trump through measures that include, as announced earlier, rescinding work authorisation for spouses.
The agency, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has also detailed other changes, both proposed and implemented, in a letter to Chuck Grassley, who heads the US senate’s judiciary committee, such as abuse and fraud tip-lines, strict scrutiny of new and extension petitions, new and stricter guidelines for third-party worksites (key to outsourcing) and revise the definition of “speciality occupation” to attract only the best and the brightest.
USCIS director Frank Cissna’s letter to Grassley is an “update” putting together for possibly the first time in one document all the incremental measures that the agency has rolled out since President Trump laid down the principles in his Buy American, Hire American executive order in April 2017, vowing to prevent the programme from being used to take away American jobs.
“One area where we are focussing significant attention is on strengthening the integrity of the H-1B programme,” Cissna wrote in the letter written on April 4, contents of which were first reported by Breitbart News and the letter was first published by Axios. The USCIS has refused to discuss the letter saying to Hindustan Times in a statement “USCIS does not comment on correspondence between the director and Congress”.
The US grants 85,000 H-1B visas for high-skill speciality jobs every year that are subject to a congressionally mandated cap allowing 65,000 to foreigners hired abroad and additional 20,000 to foreigners enrolled in advanced studies in US school and colleges. A bulk of these visas have tended to go to Indians hired by both US firms such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft and US subsidiaries of Indian IT giants such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro. The move could have an impact on more than 70,000 H-4 visa holders who have work permits.