U.S. President Donald Trump’s “buy American and hire American” focus may adversely affect the H1B visas which allow skilled-workers from around the world to apply for jobs in American companies.
The H1B visa holders can apply for permanent residency in the US and can buy property in the country. These visas were sometimes used by some companies in the USA to hire foreign workers at a lesser cost than their American counterparts.
People from India receive more H-IBs than any other country. In 2015 alone, 253,377 Indian were either given new H-IB visa or their previous H-IB visa was extended.
Canada and China are other two countries which send many skilled workers to the United States through this programme. Some 63,626 Canadians and over 36,000 Chinese were able to get this visa in 2015.
Mexicans were also among the top entry gainers through H-1B visa, with over 20,000 getting a chance to pursue jobs in the field of technology, science, medicine in the United States under the H-1B programme.
The proposed new legislation proposes to limit the entry of highly-skilled workers into the country to stop companies replacing American workers. The bill will affect primarily Indian IT giants such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro. The U.S tech industry may be hurt as well as many H-1B visas go to big American companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft Corp.